Director General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu has said he believes that every state in Nigeria will at some point experience the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The NCDC Boss stated this during his appearance on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily.
He stressed that the Nigerian government was making efforts to curb the further spread of the disease, noting that it has been a tough task.
Ihekweazu stated that;
We have responded to Lassa smoothly and nobody shut down the country because it wasn’t necessary, the response was fairly efficient. Now, COVID-19 is on a much larger scale – at the moment in 22 states but it will grow to every state in Nigeria, there is no reason why it won’t – it is a respiratory virus.
He also reacted to the differences in the figures of confirmed COVID-19 cases released by the NCDC and the numbers in some states, especially in Lagos and Kano.
Dr Ihekweazu stated that the health agency has been working hard to tackle coronavirus while the authorities in various ways states have their roles to play in ensuring reduction in spread of the virus.
He insisted that Nigeria cannot run away from the outbreak and the NCDC would continue to be transparent with the results, to stimulate more response from various aspects of the government.
The NCDC boss said;
We just activated the lab in Kano a few days ago. So, these are the results of the increased testing capacity that we are providing for the country. The tests are fairly robust; I can’t say 100 per cent but they are as close to that as possible. We had the highest number of positive cases in a single day.
Ihekweazu explained that;
Since the onset of the outbreak, we are testing a lot more (and) that is beginning to show. It is only so much we can do from NCDC; we are working with the state governments.
He added;
The states actually own the response in their states and local levels, and we need all of them now. We really have to face the reality that this is an outbreak, this is a virus.
He noted that the virus will circulate in Nigeria, but it is the responsibility of everyone in the country to prepare more, to be able to detect, isolate, treat, list contacts, and stop transmission.
