By Audrey Lotechukwu
SAT, APRIL 18 2020-theG&BJournal- Nigeria’s coronavirus daily new confirmed cases toll spiked dramatically Friday by 51, fuelling concern that the disease is already widely spread in the country. The increasing number, the Health Minister Dr. E.O Ehanire hinted earlier on Friday during the Presidential Task Force briefing in Abuja, is likely due to scaled up implementation of the new case- finding strategy as well as the result of rising community transmission.
159 cases were discharged but what is noticeable is the doubling in the number of deaths to 17, and the predominance of cases in Lagos-now 283 in total, more than half the country’s total.
The Minister expects the yield to be even bigger with house-to- house and cluster testing, using the revised criteria for sample collection. There are indications that more and more people are now being transferred to treatment centers across the country as the effect of the disease becomes even more obvious.
On Wednesday the Minister revealed that the Testing criteria for coronavirus (COVID-19) have been expanded to include not only contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases with fever and respiratory symptom but also to all persons with fever and respiratory tract of unknown cause.
He suggested that the advent of community transmission which marked the evolution of containment strategy informed the new measure. There is also an increased drive to detect cases more rapidly especially in hotspot communities.
‘’The numbers are creeping up to that alarming levels,’’ a medical doctor tells theG&BJournal in Lagos. ‘’The unnoticed could be anything between a thousand and maybe two thousand people in some densely populated communities now suffering the symptoms-and maybe applying self-medication. That is why we as a country need to move faster with our testing process.’’
As at 10.10 pm Friday April 17 total confirmed was just seven short of 500- (NCDC data).
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