By Audrey Lotechukwu
SUN, MAY 03 2020-theG&BJournal- Nigeria Saturday edged past Ghana to become West Africa’s worst-hit nation after it announced another 220 new cases of the coronavirus, with 2388 now infected since the outbreak in the country.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) revealed the new figures, which includes a total of 85 deaths and 385 discharged patients. 62 of the new cases reported occurred in Lagos, taking the state’s total to 1068.
Nigeria is now bound towards overtaking Algeria (4,154 confirmed cases; 453 deaths; 1,821 recoveries), Egypt (5,895 confirmed cases; 406 deaths; 1,460 recoveries), Morocco (4,687 confirmed cases; 172 deaths; 1,235 recoveries) and South Africa South Africa (5,951 confirmed cases; 116 deaths; 2,382 recoveries) as the country ramps up testing.
Health experts project the country’s number of infected people will overtake or get close to these countries by next week given the increased pace of testing. Testing in the country is at least 1 month behind that of the four biggest infected countries in the continent.
In West Africa, Ghana (2,169 confirmed cases; 18 deaths; 229 recoveies), Guinea (1,537 confirmed cases; 7 deaths; 342 recoveries) and Senegal (1,115 confirmed cases; 9 deaths; 368 recoveries) are the countries most affected in the region.
Meanwhile, the Director General of the NCDC, Chikwe Ihekweazu claimed 16, 588 tests has been carried so far-still a far cry in a country of 200 million people. Victims are between the ages of 10 and 70, with men more affected than women.
The NCDC boss also said 3,500 beds are available right now in the entire country, and no state including Lagos and the FCT has achieved the bed capacity that they may need to respond to a bigger outbreak.
|twitter:@theGBJournal|email: info@govandbusinessjournal.com.ng|
