Nigeria’s NCDC Tests 16,588 Samples for Coronavirus

By Dipo Olowookere

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Saturday said it has tested a total of 16,588 samples in the country for coronavirus as at Friday, May 1, 2020.

In an update on its Facebook this afternoon, the agency said out of the 16,588 tests it has conducted since the first index case was reported in Nigeria on February 27, 2020, a total of 2,170 have come out positive, while 351 patients have recovered and 68 deaths recorded so far.

An analysis of the report by Business Post showed that on Friday, May 1, 2020, the NCDC tested 829 samples, out of which 238 returned positive, with 10 deaths (7 in Lagos and 3 in Sokoto) and 32 persons discharged, mostly from the Lagos isolation centres (26), while Katsina State discharged six patients.

From the 238 positive cases reported yesterday,  Kano had 92, FCT had 36, Lagos recorded 30, Gombe reported 16, Bauchi had 10, Delta recorded 8, Oyo had 6, Zamfara had 5, Sokoto also had 5, Ondo and Nasarawa States recorded 4 cases each.

In addition, Kwara, Edo, Ekiti, Borno, and Yobe States reported 3 cases each, while Adamawa had 2 cases, with Niger, Imo, Ebonyi, Rivers and Enugu States recording one case each.

The report further said no new state recorded a confirmed COVID-19 case on Friday. The total number of states, including FCT that have reported at least one confirmed case in Nigeria is still 35 (34 states + FCT).

From the data released by the agency, more males have tested positive for COVID-19 than females, with those of the age bracket of 31-40 years old mostly affected, followed by the 21 to 30 years age group and 41 to 50 years age category.

Those in the agre group of 70 and above are the least infected, followed by those below the age of 10.

Lagos, which has recorded a total of 1006 positive cases as at May 1, 2020, has the highest number of active cases (753). It was followed by Kano (311 total cases) with 308 active cases, while Abuja has recorded 214 cases with 175 active cases.