The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, has said that the nation’s health system is struggling to cope with the increasing number of coronavirus infections daily.
Speaking at the briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 on Tuesday, the Director-General, NCDC, Dr Chikwe Iheakwazu, warned that the nation would pay in January for disregarding the health protocols.
He said: “We just faced the worst week since we started responding to this outbreak. We had more cases in Nigeria last week than in any other previous week since the beginning of the outbreak.
“Pictures and videos from across the country paint a very disheartening situation because it appears that our messages, our appeals to Nigerians over the last few months have not been heeded and we have gone ahead with business as usual.
“Events centres are full, social activities are full and so it is no surprises that cases are rising.
“January will be a tough month, no doubt about it. So, we have to brace ourselves for the consequences of the activities that we have decided to carry out in December.”
Recall that the NCDC had registered 749 new infections for Tuesday in the country.
So far, the NCDC has tested 937,712 people since the first COVID-19 confirmed case was made known on Feb. 27.
The public health agency said that the new infections were recorded in 17 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and the total number of infections in the country was now 85,560.
The NCDC stated that 71,937 patients had recovered from the virus and discharged as 580 new patients were discharged from isolation centres across the country.
It noted that the death toll from the virus increased by three, raising the total number of deaths to 1,267 nationwide.
“Our discharges today include 279 community recoveries in Lagos State and 106 community recoveries in the FCT, managed in line with guidelines,” it said.
Of the new infections, the NCDC stated that Lagos State recorded 299 new cases, followed by Plateau with 131 cases and Kaduna with 83 cases.
The FCT recorded 74 new infections, Kwara, 35; Sokoto, 26; Edo, 18; and Kano had 17.
Katsina got 16 newly infected people; Delta, 11; Nasarawa,10; Ondo and Bauchi had nine each Rivers, five; Akwa Ibom, three; Jigawa, Osun and Ekiti had one each.
The NCDC said that a multi-sectoral National Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), activated at Level Three, was coordinating the response activities nationwide.
The agency noted that to date Week 52 had the highest number of infections.
“The analysis shows that 16 out of every 100 tests carried out are positive. We are also seeing increasing transmission among younger people and this is not considered good and safe.
“We must, therefore, exercise utmost restraint by taking responsibility,” the NCDC stated.
