Nigeria has recorded its second coronavirus case with the country’s health minister, Osagie Ehanire, making the announcement on Monday.
Health officials said the second patient had contact with the first patient who is an Italian.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control in a tweet on Monday said “this second case is a contact of the index case, in Ogun state.
The new case has been in isolation and was tested as part of our strategy to test all contacts of the index case.”
It added that “since the first case was confirmed in Lagos, the NCDC has been supporting the Ogun State Emergency Operations Centre to respond accordingly.
We urge the public not to panic.“
The Honourable Minister @Fmohnigeria has announced a second confirmed case of #COVID19 in Nigeria.
This second case is a contact of the index case, in Ogun state. The new case has been in isolation and was tested as part of our strategy to test all contacts of the index case. pic.twitter.com/aTkzEy3qXo
— NCDC (@NCDCgov) March 9, 2020
Increased surveillance
The statement also stated that “recent studies have shown that increased surveillance, isolation of contacts & in particular, contact tracing reduces the risk of spread of #COVID19.
All other contacts of the index case in Ogun & Lagos will remain in isolation & testing will be done on those not yet tested.”
Nigeria was the first country in West Africa to record the coronavirus. Since then Togo, Cameroon and Senegal have all recorded cases.
Africa so far has recorded at least 80 cases with one death reported in Egypt.
Egypt (48), Algeria (17) and Nigeria (2) Tunisia (1), Togo (1), Cameroon (2), Morocco (2), South Africa (3) and Senegal (4) are the cases so far.
More than 100,000 cases and over 3,000 deaths have been recorded in some 60 countries worldwide.
The coronavirus outbreak began in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December last year.
Source: Africafeeds.com
