By Adedapo Adesanya
A second case of the coronavirus, Covid-19, has been confirmed in Nigeria by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
Minister of Health, Mr Osagie Ehanire, who made this confirmation, said the person involved had a contact with the index case, an Italian who came into Lagos from Turkey about two weeks ago.
In a situation report released by NCDC on Monday, March 9, 2020, it was stated that, “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.”
This means that the case was not imported like the previous one, but confirmed in one of the contacts traced to an Italian earlier last month.
In the statement on the NCDC website, the contact, which was inferred as male, was said to exhibit no significant clinical symptoms.
This brings the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Nigeria today to two.
The country recorded the first case of the coronavirus on Thursday, February 28 through an Italian man who flew into the country for business.
As at now, the Italian and the second case are currently quarantined.
COVID-19 has claimed over 3,000 lives globally and has infected over 90,000 persons since it originated from the Wuhan city of China in late December 2019, but was globally known in January 2020.
Aduragbemi Omiyale