Tension in Nigeria as coronavirus infection rate rises, death toll increasing slowly

There is rising tension in Nigeria as the coronavirus infection rate has continued to rise daily while deaths from isolation and treatment centres are slowly increasing. However, statistics of recoveries is also rising, indicating that as more people are being infested more people are also getting cured while few people die.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in its update statistics on Saturday indicated that at 10:30pm on Friday the country has recorded 209 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection, 4 deaths and 25 recoveries.

Meanwhile, the testing capacity of the federal government is very low. Till date, the government has only 7 test centres across the country, servicing the 36 states of the federation. The Minister of Health had at the media briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID 19 early in the week, said that the government can now 2,000 persons daily.

Meanwhile, in South Africa, the government deployed 67 mobile test units in the country, and in one week of lockdown, 47,000 persons have been tested. The South African government as of Friday has developed the capacity of its health institutions to conduct 30,000 coronavirus tests daily on the citizens.

Nigeria is still struggling with 7 test centres and 2,000 daily test capacity. The absence of test centres in several states generates fears that the 209 confirmed infection cases may be an under-reporting of the actual infection rate in Nigeria.

Citizens in several state on Saturday complained that there is no test centre in their states, expressing fear that some people may be dying silently from coronavirus without detection. While several states have ordered lockdown, some are recently setting up isolation centres. Apparently, citizens in states that have not been listed among detected confirmed cases, still doubt that all residents are immune from coronavirus infection. The citizens have, therefore, demanded for coronavirus test to be conducted in their states. This, in their views, will give the actual infection rate in Nigeria.