Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has reported 245 new Coronavirus cases and 6 new deaths on Monday night.
The centre in its daily COVID-19 report announced this in a tweet, stating;
245 new cases of #COVID19;
76-Lagos
37-Katsina
32-Jigawa
23-Kano
19-FCT
18-Borno
10-Edo
9-Bauchi
6-Adamawa
5-Oyo
5-Ogun
1-Ekiti
1-Osun
1-Benue
1-Niger
1-Zamfara2802 confirmed cases of #COVID19 in Nigeria
Discharged: 417
Deaths: 93 pic.twitter.com/IkHR3dpcVV— NCDC (@NCDCgov) May 4, 2020
As at Monday night, Nigeria had recorded 2558 Coronavirus cases, 400 recovered patients and 87 deaths.
However, with the new cases, there are now a total of 2802 Coronavirus cases, 417 discharged and 93 deaths in Nigeria.
Also, according to a May 3rd report on NCDC’s website, 18,536 samples have been tested and contact tracing of 9305 person of interest is ongoing.
Meanwhile, the Director-General of the NCDC, Chikwe Ihekweazu, has said the country will experience an increase in COVID-19 cases because of the disregard for safety guidelines by some citizens.
Residents in Lagos, Ogun and FCT had poured out en masse on Monday, storming banks, markets and motor parks after the lockdown earlier imposed on all three cities was lifted today, May 4th.
Ihekweazu, while speaking at the Presidential Task Force briefing on COVID-19 in Abuja, said the government may be forced to issue another lockdown if cases explode.
He stated;
It is not the guidelines per se, it is the thinking behind it. How do we want to manage the risk of explosion and transmission? Today, we might forgive a little bit because it is the first day.
The NCDC boss stressed that;
We will have infection because of what happened today, no doubt about that. But how can we learn from the mistakes of today into tomorrow, next tomorrow so by Friday hopefully we have normalised some of these things.
Yes, we knew today would be a problem because for the first time, people were let out of their homes but now they are out and we have seen the sunlight again, the challenge for us as a society is how do we now organise ourselves to mitigate these risks and limit transmission?
He implored residents of the country to continue to adhere to safety guidelines laid down by the government.
See photos of people disregarding social distancing guideline below;
