In what could be described as good news to Nigerians, the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, has said 90 per cent of people who contract the COVID-19 infection will recover fully.
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Responding to questions at the daily Presidential TaskForce (PTF) briefing on Monday, Ehanire said that people are afraid due to the high number of confirmed cases “that they forget about those recovering.”
An ambulance can do a large number of things, so the sign of an ambulance does not immediately translate to COVID-19. That is ‘over the top’ of apprehension.
It can happen but in this case, I don’t believe so. There is no reason for apprehension because over 90 per cent of those who have COVID-19 will recover.
Nine out 10 will recover, so what is the fear about. Only that the numbers are so large that we forget that people recover and few get very sick, that is just about four or five out of 100,” Mr Ehanire said.
As of Tuesday morning, Nigeria has recorded 665 cases of COVID-19, of which 188 infected people have recovered and have been discharged while 22 people have died.
Some of the people who have died from the disease in Nigeria were said to have underlying ailments.
Meanwhile, the Minister said that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, will double its testing capacity from 1,500 to 3,000 persons daily.
According to him, the high number of confirmed COVID-19 cases was as a result of increased testing and social mobilisation at the grassroots to combat community transmission of the virus.
He also stated:
A robust national Response Action Plan is presently under development to address the challenges arising from Nigeria’s entry to COVID-19 community transmission phase.
Thirteen molecular diagnostic laboratory nationwide have been activated so far by the NCDC and the target this week is to double the national testing capacity which stands at 1,500 a day.
Our strategy now focuses on the community and we have increased testing and social mobilisation at the grassroots.
The worrying increases in the frequency and numbers of new persons with COVID-19 being recorded daily, is attributable to this new strategy, in combination with the increased community transmission.
