COVID-19: NCDC Announces 1,633 New Infections

Across Nigeria, hospital intensive care units are being battered as COVID-19 cases continue to rise in a post-holiday surge.

Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Saturday announced additional 1,633 New COVID-19 infections in 20 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

The health institute said that 5 new patients have been confirmed dead from the virus, while 1,024 people were discharged from various isolation centers across the country.  Which includes 573 community recoveries in Lagos State managed in line with guidelines.

With the latest update by NCDC, the tally of infected people in the country rose to 120,602, while the number of recoveries and discharged reached 95,901 in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

There have now been 1,502 confirmed deaths since the first reported death in March. When a 67 year-old man who unfortunately, had underlying medical illnesses and died due to complications on  March 23rd 2020 in Abuja.

Data obtained from NCDC’s official Twitter handle shows that, within a 24 hour period, Lagos, a major financial centre for all of Africa and the economic hub of Nigeria saw 498 new coronavirus cases, while Plateau, FCT, and Rivers reported 214, 176 and 99 cases respectively.

Other states with new virus infections as follows: Kaduna-98, Edo-87, Anambra-86, Akwa Ibom-50, Osun-47, Kano-40, Oyo-40, Kwara-39, Ebonyi-28, Niger-28, Taraba-28, Ogun-27, Ondo-21, Ekiti-12, Katsina-7, Borno-6 and Delta-2.

NCDC disclosed that it had conducted about 1,241,230 tests since the first confirmed case relating to the COVID-19 pandemic was announced in the country.

Our discharges today includes 573 community recoveries in Lagos State managed in line with guidelines.

A breakdown of cases by state can be found via https://t.co/zQrpNeOfet pic.twitter.com/opVAi4igcI

— NCDC (@NCDCgov) January 23, 2021

Hospitals in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos are struggling to manage an influx of Covid-19 patients. The country's case tally has grown significantly since December driven by a mutant strain of the virus.

Due to the crisis, some medical workers have had to stay on duty for days.

"Some of us here, we don't even sleep at night, because we have calls, we have to go and attend to patients. Some of us don't leave, we stay in the hospital, two, three days, some five days", said Adejumo Olusola, a physician.

The second wave has created a medical oxygen crisis in the country as many patients need to be assisted to breathe.

In Lagos alone, demand has gone from 70 to 350 oxygen tanks a day.

"We've never not had enough oxygen. We've been close to not having enough and we've been stretched, but we've never actually been in a situation where we have patients that need oxygen, and there's no oxygen", said Lagos health commissioner Akin Abayomi.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday approved 17 million dollars to build 38 oxygen plants and to repair existing ones.

January 23, 2021