26% Of Nigeria’s COVID-19 Cases From ‘Unknown Source’ – NCDC

Twenty-six per cent or 203 of the 782 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Nigeria as of April 21 are from unknown sources, according to a report by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

The NCDC’s situation report for Tuesday also showed that 27 per cent or 210 of the cases in the country involved people with travel history, 35 per cent or 274 of the cases were contacts of those with travel history, while 12 per cent or 95 of the cases were tagged as incomplete.

Nigeria witnessed an upsurge in coronavirus cases on Tuesday as the NCDC confirmed a record 117 cases, pushing the country’s total infections towards 800.

The latest report from the specialist agency showed that the pandemic did not, however, spread to any new state during the day and all 117 new cases were limited to places where cases had already been confirmed. Based on the report, 24 states and the Federal Capital Territory Abuja have confirmed.

In all, 197 people have recovered from COVID-19 in the country but, tragically, the pandemic has claimed 25 lives.

According to the NCDC report, males account for 70 per cent or 544 of the country’s total cases with females accounting for 30 per cent or 238 of the cases.
The most affected age group is 31-40. This group accounts for 20 per cent of total cases in the country.

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Since the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in the country on February 27, the federal and state governments have taken several measures to prevent the spread including announcing lockdowns and restrictions on movement and gatherings as well as the closure of airports and schools.

But with the cases continuing to spread, there have been increased calls for testing.

The NCDC report indicates that as of Tuesday, 8,934 samples had been tested.
Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum and Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, told Channels TV on Tuesday that not enough testing was being done.

“For now, it is true that we are not testing enough,” he said during a Skype interview on Politics Today. “There have been only about 8,000 tests from the record of the NCDC. If we have only 8,000 tests and we already have over 600, almost 700, of them testing positive, if you extrapolate from that, it is a worrisome number.”

The governor also said there was nothing to show that the virus would not spread to all of the 36 states.

As part of efforts to curb the spread, he said the governors were working with the NCDC to ensure that all states have testing centres and for more people to get tested.