Nigeria Tuesday recorded 117 new cases of the novel coronavirus, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). In a tweet, the NCDC said 59 cases were recorded in Lagos and 14 in Kano.
The country’s total infections has now risen to 782 While deaths have risen to 25, at least 197 cases have recovered from the disease.
Meanwhile, St. Nicholas Hospital has suspended operations in its Lagos Island branch for 14 days after it was exposed to persons positive for COVID-19.
In a statement made available to the Media Monday, the Clinical Director, St. Nicholas Hospital, Ebun Bamgboye said this was necessary because of the safety of its staff and patients.
He said: “We have contacted the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and as at April 18, our facility had been decontaminated by the Lagos State Government.
The safety of our staff and patients is of paramount importance to us. As such, we are complying with the directive of the Health Facility Monitoring and Accreditation Agency (HEFAMAA) to suspend our services for two weeks.”
He said in order to keep in touch with patients, the hospital had introduced telemedicine services where patients could consult their doctors via video and audio channels by calling.
He however stated that the hospital’s Victoria Island branch was open for operations.
There was, however, good news as the Private Sector-led Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) has announced that it was set to distribute N23 billion worth of food items to 10 million Nigeria in 1.6 million households.
The distribution of the food items, billed to begin next week, is to cushion the effects of the hardship foisted on the people by the restrictions imposed on many parts of the country by the federal and state governments to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The coalition will has also unveiled strategies to help free Nigeria from the pandemic just as the Lagos State Government has set up sampling stations in 20 local government areas of the state to facilitate community testing.
However, amid speculation that the virus might have spread to Borno State, the state government yesterday said it was still waiting for the result of the first suspected case in the state, who happened to be a dead nurse.
Announcing the planned distribution of the N23 billion food items during the coalition’s inspection of its yet-to-be-completed 200-bed space isolation facility yesterday at the Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH) in Yaba, the President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, said the palliative would be shared in all the 774 local government areas in the country.
He said: “This coalition is not only involved in medical intervention, we are involved in food distributions to Nigerians. We are buying N23 billion worth of food items to be distributed during this lockdown, as food is very important in sustaining the stay-at-home order.
“Nigeria has about 200 million people. So we will be distributing the food items to five per cent of the country’s population, and that amounts to 10 million Nigerians. He said.
