Nigeria is attempting to trace as many as 4370 people who may have contacts with coronavirus patients in the country.
“We have 4,370 people of interest whom we are tracing,” Nigeria’s Information Minister Lai Mohammed said at a press briefing on Thursday.
“We urge those who have had contact with suspected cases to immediately report to the authorities. We urge Nigerians to support the authorities in this regard,” he added.
Mohammed said the country could soon see an “exponential” increase in coronavirus infections unless contacts of confirmed cases are tracked down quicker.
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This is coming weeks after Nigeria had the first case of the virus. The country has since announced 50 other cases in eight states and capital city Abuja.
Two of the patients have fully recovered and discharged. Six more have fully recovered and will be discharged on Friday, according to Lagos State Government. One death has been recorded so far.
Nigeria is one of the African countries that have the fewest cases of coronavirus, hence, there are worries that authorities may not be testing enough people.
The nation’s disease control agency, like the United States and the United Kingdom, has adopted a strategy of limiting tests to only people already showing symptoms of the disease or have come in contact with confirmed cases.
But in comparison to those countries, Nigeria’s test numbers are far lower. The US had done 370,000 tests according to Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator on Wednesday. Officials are mum on the number of people tested so far in Nigeria.
Nevertheless, the authorities in the country have put in place several measures to stop the spread of the virus. In fact,the information minister said Nigerians should expect more in days to come, a pointer that the country might be shutdown.
The government placed travel restriction on 15 countries with a high prevalence of the virus. The government also suspended its visa on arrival policy on the same day.
All international flights have also been barred from all Nigeria airports.
The government have also advised citizens to stay at home as the world tackles the pandemic.
All schools and tertiary institutions in the country have also been shut for a month.
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