₦airaland Forum

Despite the lockdown imposed by President Muhammadu Buhari on Lagos State, the epicentre of coronavirus, neighbouring Ogun and Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), to stem the spread of the virus, figures show that COVID-19 confirmed cases have more than double across the nation within 11 of the last 13 days.

The total number of confirmed cases in Nigeria, as of 9pm, Monday, March 30, the eve of the lockdown, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), was 131 with Lagos accounting for 81, FCT 21 and Ogun 3.

But, as of Friday night, the 11th day of the lockdown, the number of confirmed cases across Nigeria was 305, more than twice of the pre-shutdown figure.

For Lagos, the figure moved from 81 to 163, 100% hike while Abuja jumped from 21 to 56, representing about 150% increase.

Ogun also recorded more than 100% increase in cases during the period under review.

The figure for the state for the 11 days moved from three to seven.

The lockdown was to last 14 days.

In essence, it expires tomorrow

According to Buhari, who announced the anti-coronavirus measure in a broadcast to the nation on Sunday, March 29, the step was to use the period to identify, trace and isolate individuals that have come into contact with confirmed cases.

“We will ensure the treatment of confirmed cases while restricting the spread to other states”, the President had said.

Also on the list of confirmed coronavirus cases, as of March 30, were Oyo (, Kaduna (3), Edo (2), Bauchi (2), Osun (2), Enugu (2), Ekiti (1), Rivers (1) and Benue (1).

But as of Friday night, Osun had 20 confirmed cases, Edo 12, Oyo 11, Bauchi 6, Akwa Ibom 5, Kaduna 6, Katsina 4, Ondo 2, Enugu 2, Ekiti 2, Rivers 2, Kwara 2, Delta 2, Benue 1, Niger 1 and Anambra 1.

There were also seven coronavirus deaths across Nigeria as of Friday night.

But it isn’t all negatives for the country as 58 virus patients were discharged within the 11 of the 14 days of the lockdown.

Figures for yesterday cases were not available at press time.

Meanwhile, the Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, told Sunday Vanguard at the weekend that lockdown was crucial to stopping the spread of coronavirus.

Ihekweazu’s words: “Given the transmissibility of the virus that causes COVID-19, the lockdown and social distancing provide an opportunity to reduce the risk of spread. It is still too early to say, but we know from projections that implementing measures such as movement restriction, closure of large gatherings and others provide an opportunity to flattening the curve”.

The NCDC boss had said in an interview published by Sunday Vanguard last week that he expected the number of coronavirus confirmed cases to rise but that it will come down.

“We have crossed the hundred mark and the reality is that there is a virus circulating in our midst and that is why Mr President came up to speak to Nigerians,” he stated.

“In the short term, we do expect the numbers to keep rising but we also expect that we will be able to get on top of this and that is why some measures were needed and we met with Mr President”.

tophumble:
They were getting free money from Federal Govt without any case of COVID19, now that the virus is there, FG shd just give them all the $6billion they intend to borrow

Shelumiel:
I'm beginning to see a pattern here : yesterday Niger state confirmed its first case, two days ago it was Katsina recording 3 additional cases to the one they had before (even though the state was on lockdown) and now, we have Kano state; recording its first ever case. Wow...seems like all the governors are scrambling for Covid-19 funding.

Quietly:
Serious competition,

The Kaduna State Government on Saturday, confirmed a new case of coronavirus. The new case had no connection to the first 5 cases, state government official has said. The number of COVID-19 infected persons in the state as at Friday, had risen to six.

Dr.Amina Mohammed Baloni, the Commissioner for Health said that the latest case was a male who worked as a gateman in the Mando area and recently returned from Lagos.

She said the 6th case had ‘’ traveled to Kaduna on public transport and made contact with the authorities as his symptoms worsened. The patient has been evacuated to the state’s Infectious Disease Centre. ‘’

According to Baloni, the latest case presented the nightmare scenario of possible community transmission of Covid-19 in the state .

‘’It is vey difficult and complicated to trace the contacts of a patient who came from Lagos via public transport and has had some instance of local commuting since his arrival,” she said.

‘’The Rapid Response Team is trying its utmost to elicit from him a list of his contacts, so that they can be traced and monitored. He does not know who his fellow passengers from Lagos were. But the team is working to develop an idea of his local contacts in Kaduna, including any vehicles he commuted in and people he met at the hospital he visited and within his neighbourhood,’’ she said

‘’It was in order to prevent and avert a scenario like this that the government has consistently appealed to the public to practice social distancing and directed commercial buses to carry no more than two passengers per row.’’

‘’The instances that have now being recorded of people spreading Covid-19 from one state to another further reinforces the need to stop all inter-state travel. People need to stay in one place and help reduce the footprint of Covid-19,’’ she said.

The government also outrightly banned motorcycle taxis and Keke Napeps because they do not satisfy the conditions for social distancing,she said.

“Avoid large gatherings and congregational prayers, now that there is a case of possible community transmission of Covid-19, residents must begin to take more seriously the quarantine conditions. ‘’

‘’It is important to stay at home, go out only when absolutely necessary and practice personal hygiene, especially washing hands with soap and water regularly. Residents should also observe respiratory hygiene.’’

” These are dangerous times, but we can work together to stop this disease from spreading. It is cheaper and better to prevent Covid-19 than to catch it,” she said.

Starhearts:
Good point
Mind u he is talking about Ekiti state
Dats y some of u failed an exam

As COVID-19 tests become more widely available across the US, scientists have warned about a growing concern: Many people with negative results might actually have the virus.

That could have devastating implications as a global recession looms and governments wrangle with the question of when to reopen economies shuttered as billions of people were ordered to stay home in an effort to break transmission of the deadly disease.

The majority of tests around the world use a technology called PCR, which detects pieces of the coronavirus in mucus samples.

But “there are a lot of things that impact whether or not the test actually picks up the virus,” Priya Sampathkumar, an infectious diseases specialist at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, told AFP.

“It depends on how much virus the person is shedding (through sneezing, coughing and other bodily functions), how the test was collected and whether it was done appropriately by someone used to collecting these swabs, and then how long it sat in transport,” she said.

The virus has only been spreading among humans for four months and therefore studies about test reliability are still considered preliminary.

Early reports from China suggest its sensitivity, meaning how well it is able to return positive results when the virus is present, is somewhere around 60 to 70 percent.

Different companies around the world are now producing slightly different tests, so it’s hard to have a precise overall figure.

But even if it were possible to increase the sensitivity to 90 percent, the magnitude of risk remains substantial as the number of people tested grows, Sampathkumar argued in a paper published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

“In California, estimates say the rate of COVID-19 infection may exceed 50 percent by mid-May 2020,” she said.
With 40 million people, “even if only one percent of the population was tested, 20,000 false-negative results would be expected.”

This makes it critical for clinicians to base their diagnosis on more than just the test: they must also examine a patient’s symptoms, their potential exposure history, imaging and other lab work.

– Timing is everything –

Part of the problem lies in locating the virus as its area of highest concentration shifts within the body.

The main nasal swab tests examine the nasopharynx, where the back of the nose meets the top of the throat. This requires a trained hand to perform and some portion of the false negatives arises from improper procedure.

But even if done correctly, the swab may produce a false negative. That’s because as the disease progresses, the virus passes from the upper to the lower respiratory system.

In these cases, the patient may be asked to try to cough up sputum — mucus from the lower lungs — or doctors may need to take a sample more invasively, when a patient is under sedation.

Daniel Brenner, an emergency physician at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, described to AFP taking a test after performing a procedure called a bronchoalveolar lavage.

This was done on a patient whose nasal swab returned negative three times, but who showed all the signs of COVID-19.

Eventually, the patient’s medical team placed a camera down his windpipe to examine the lungs, then sprayed fluid in and sucked out the secretions, which were then tested, resulting in a positive.

– No perfect test –
Uncertainty in clinical diagnoses is not new, and clinicians are well aware that no type of test for any condition can be considered perfect.

What makes COVID-19 different is its newness , said Sampathkumar.

“Most of the time when you have tests, you have test characteristics outlined carefully and warnings about tests interpretation,” she said.

“We had no test for so long, and when we got the test, we started using it widely and sort of forgot the basics.”

After being slow to start mass testing, the US has ramped up production and has tested almost 2.5 million people, with pharmacists now authorized to carry out the procedure.

But “the real fear of that is people who are given a false negative test and then decide that they’re safe to go around their daily life and go out and expose people,” said Brenner.

Much hope is placed on newly available serological tests which look for antibodies produced by a person’s body in response to the virus and can tell whether a person was infected, long after they recovered.

They could also be used to help diagnose a person who is currently infected but whose PCR test results showed a false negative, by waiting a week or so for the body to produce its immune response.

“We are excited about the serologic test, but we don’t know how well it will work and we are starting to study it,” said Sampathkumar.