By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) announced on Monday night that 229 new cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) were reported in the country in the last 24 hours.
In its daily announcement, the agency said most of the cases were recorded from Lagos, the epicentre of the pandemic in Nigeria.
The latest addition has brought the total confirmed coronavirus cases in Nigeria to 8,068 since the index case was reported in February 27, 2020 in Nigeria.
The NCDC said in the last 24 hours, Lagos recorded 90 fresh cases followed by Katsina with 27, Imo with 26, Kano with 23, Abuja with 14 and Plateau with 12.
It further said Ogun State had 9 cases, Delta State recorded 7, Borno and Rivers States reported 5 cases each, Oyo State posted 4 cases, Gombe State had 3, Osun State reported 2, while Anambra and Bayelsa States recorded one case each.
The healthcare organisation, which coordinates the control of the contagion in the country, stated that out of the 8,068 cases of COVID-19 so far in Nigeria, 2,311 patients have recovered and discharged, while 233 persons have died from it.
Meanwhile, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has warned that COVID-19 threatens to deepen the humanitarian crisis in north eastern Nigeria, which has been besieged with escalation of violence between government forces and Boko Haram insurgents/bandits for nearly a decade, resulting in mass displacement and deprivation.
The IOM expressed this fear in a COVID-19 Situation Analysis based on assessment of knowledge, impact and practice of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and impacted populations in the six conflict-affected states of north eastern Nigeria.
Conducted alongside Round 32 Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) assessment by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the report covers the period April 16 to May 6, 2020 and reflects trends from the six states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe.
In this first such assessment, 86,657 respondents or 4 percent of all identified IDPs as per DTM Round 32, were interviewed for a range of COVID-19 related indicators.
Key informant interviews and focus group discussions were the primary methods used for the assessment and the findings were corroborated with physical on-ground observations.
