By our Correspondent
Baring the barrage of new Covid-19 scourges in China, there has been a latest COVID-19 death in Lagos.
This is just as ‘Lassa fever cases rise to 1,038 with 10 new outbreaks’ around the country.
The latest epidemiological report by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) Wednesday, showed that in one week, between December 24 and 30, 2022, the country recorded 35 new COVID-19 cases from four states.
Accordingly, the states are: the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), 22; Lagos, 10; Delta, two; and Plateau, one.
Thus, this brings the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Nigeria to 266,450, with 3,155 deaths recorded since the beginning of the pandemic.
NCDC report also showed that 6,609 persons are still receiving treatment with 259,841 persons discharged so far.
While the agency is assuring Nigerians that its activated multi-sectoral national emergency operations centre (EOC) at Level 2 continues to coordinate the national response activities, the agency’s Director General, Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa, has urged Nigerians to continue to adhere to the preventive measures by practising physical distancing, face mask use, and regular hand hygiene.
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Dr. Adetifa said: “Are you worried about the upward trend of COVID-19 in parts of the world? Are you dizzy from the various letters and numbers used to describe SARSCoV2 variants? Are you worried about travel, transmission and risk of imported dangerous variants? Take responsibility.
The Dr. stressed, “Getting vaccinated protects you from severe illness, hospitalisation and death from the COVID-19 virus. So, encourage your loved ones and those around you to get vaccinated. You can visit https://vacsitefinder.nphcda.gov.ng to locate the nearest vaccination site to you.
Again he said, “Ensure you get your vaccines and booster doses. Vaccines are the most effective protection against severe disease, hospitalisation and death. In addition to vaccines, for those at high risk – use masks, avoid crowds, hand hygiene, etc.”
Relatedly, the total number of confirmed Lassa fever cases in the country is 1,038 as of December 18, 2022, since January last year, the latest report by the NCDC has shown.
And as the agency put it, between December 12 and 18, 2022, a total of 10 new cases were recorded in four states, namely: Ondo (seven), Bauchi (one), Taraba (one) and Nasarawa (one).
So, cumulatively, between January and December 18, 2022, not less than 184 confirmed Lassa fever associated deaths have been reported from 17 states, with Ondo, Edo and Ebonyi having the highest number of deaths at 54, 29 and 20 deaths.
Hence, the NCDC said: “In Week 50 (December 12 to 18), the number of new confirmed cases decreased from 13 in Week 49 of 2022 to 10 cases, reported from Ondo, Edo, Bauchi, and Kogi states.
But cumulatively, from Week 1 to Week 50, 2022, 183 deaths have been reported with a case fatality rate (CFR) of 17.6 per cent, which is lower than the CFR for the same period in 2021 (20.3 per cent).
“The predominant age group affected is 21-30 years (Range: 1 to 90 years; median age: 30 years). The male-to-female ratio for confirmed cases is 1:0.8. The number of suspected cases has increased compared to that reported for the same period in 2021. No new healthcare worker was affected in the reporting Week 50
“In total for 2022, 27 states have recorded at least one confirmed case across 111 local government areas. Of all confirmed cases, 71 per cent are from Ondo (33 per cent), Edo (25 per cent), and Bauchi (13 per cent) states.
Therefore, “National Lassa fever multi-partner, multi-sectoral Technical Working Group (TWG) continues to coordinate the response activities at all levels.”
