WHEN the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NDCD) reported new COVID-19 cases for June 13, 2021, to be seven, the majority of the feedback on the agency’s Facebook page where the announcement was made, mocked the number.

Many falsely claim that COVID-19 in Nigeria is not real.

Incidentally, Nigeria has barely tested one per cent of its population. The NCDC director-general, Chikwe Ihekweazu, has also lamented that many states have not been testing enough, in a report published by the Premium Times of December 11, 2020.

The false claims

The negative responses of Nigerians to the recent NCDC infectious data are consistent with a survey carried out by NOI Poll, a polling services firm in March 2020. The result of the poll showed that 26 per cent of Nigerians believe that they were immune to COVID-19.

Among the group feeling immune to COVID-19 are 40 per cent who say God is the source of their immunity. Another 30 per cent think being black confers on them a strong gene against COVID-19. At least 17 per cent believe that the country’s weather makes it impossible for COVID-19 to affect them. Eight per cent say they have taken strong herbs that won’t allow COVID-19 thrive in their body.

Narrowing on hot weather

The claim that hot weather kills COVID-19 is widespread in Nigeria, a reason facemasks and social distancing are considered unnecessary preventive measures against the pandemic.

The pandemic has caused the deaths of at least 3.8 million people in the world as of June 13, 2020. Nigeria’s share of the global death is about 2,000 people, a tiny fraction of the global mortality count. This may yet be another reason many citizens are feeling immune to the virus.

Some even insist that no Nigerian has died of the COVID-19. A Nollywood actor and comedian, John Okafor, popularly known as Mr Ibu, makes this claim in The Nation Newspaper of July 15, 2020. Many other news websites and blogs have amplified it, making it go viral.

“My brother, COVID-19 or 20 is not here, I don’t care. COVID whatever is not in Nigeria. We have hot weather here; the disease is scared of us just as we are scared of it so it can’t come here,” he said.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/debunking-the-claim-that-heat-kills-covid-19-in-nigeria/

There is no Covid-19 in Nigeria and even if there is ,it is super mild