Breaking: 4 New States Record First Coronavirus Cases as NCDC Announces 91 New Cases, 43 in Lagos

Four states have recorded their first-ever Covid-19 cases as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) updated the country’s coronavirus log with 91 new cases. The four states are Taraba, Bayelsa, Ebonyi and Kebbi states.

This brings the total number of confirmed cases in Nigeria to 1,273.

Lagos, as always, gets the highest daily tally with 43 new cases. This is a sharp rise from 33 cases recorded the day before and represents a 30% rise within the last 24 hours. Lagos now has 731 confirmed cases.

Abuja enjoyed the second consecutive day without a new case even though it still has the second-highest number of cases in the country with 138 confirmed cases. Just like Abuja, Kano failed to record a new case in the latest update, making it the second day within the last three days without a new case. It still has the third most cases with 77.

Debutants

This latest NCDC update marks the debut of four new states into the Covid-19 log, the highest number of new entrants per day yet. Taraba made the biggest entrance after the northeastern state debuted with 6 cases. This marks the highest figure for a first-time state.

The other debutant states include Kebbi, Bayelsa and Ebonyi. They all debuted with one case appease. There have been at least a debutant state in the last five days.

As it stands, 32 states plus the FCT have recorded cases of Covid-19. Only 4 states in Nigeria are coronavirus-free and they include Cross River, Kogi, Nassarawa, and Yobe.

The northeastern story

Over the past few days, northeastern states, while not having some of the highest numbers of cases, have nonetheless recorded some outrageous figures. In today’s update, Taraba made the biggest debut yet with 6 cases in its first entry.

Just 24 hours ago, another northeastern state, Borno, recorded a 150% daily incease when it recorded 18 new cases to bring its total confirmed cases to 30, up from 12 which it recorded the day before.

But none of these states has recorded a bigger margin of increase than Gombe. The northeastern state recorded 21 new cases on April 24, jumping from just 9 cases to 30 within 25 hours, an increase of 233%. In this latest report, Gombe managed 5 new cases, bringing the total number of cases in the state to 35.

Something seems to be brewing in the northeast as the astounding and sudden increases seem to demonstrate. One can only hope that the governors of the northeastern states are alive to their duties.

Recoveries, deaths and active cases

17 recoveries were recorded in the last 48 hours. This is an improvement from 14 recorded the day before and 11 recorded 2 days before. This brings the total number of recovered and discharged cases to 239, up from 222.

Thus, Nigeria’s recovery rate still stands at 18.7%, the first time in recent times it maintained the same rate after 24 hours. This is however still below the global recovery rate of 28%.

5 new deaths were recorded within the last 24 hours, up from 4 deaths recorded the day before. This means the number of deaths has risen two days in a row. This should be cause for alarm. The total number of deaths now stands at 40, up from 35.

Nigeria’s death rate rose sharply in the last day from 2.9% to 3.1%. Global death rate is 6.7%.

Currently, the number of active cases in Nigeria is 994, up from 925. This means 78% of cases in Nigeria are active. Globally, 63.7% of cases are active.

Would lockdown continue?

This has been the question on the lips of every Nigerian. Will the lockdown be continued? Will the people survive another bout of lockdown? Is the stay at home order making any difference?

While several alternatives have been touted (including relaxing lockdown but banning interstate travel), it remains to be seen what the new directive would be as another 14 days wind down.

However, Nigeria’s minister for health, Osagie Ehanire said that only President Buhari would decide whether to extend or relax lockdown in Lagos, Abuja and Ogun.

“The President will make that announcement in his own time. We will give him the facts, he will consider the facts and make his own announcements using his own wisdom,” the minister told Channels TV.

Asked for his professional advice, the minister said it was a matter of health vs economy.

“What happens is that every country, you balance the medical and the health-related benefits from the economic-related benefits because you have an economy you don’t want to kill and you also have the health side that you don’t want to destroy,” the minister said.

While this wasn’t as straightforward as can be, one can only hope it means the government is thinking up a solution that can balance between health and the economic needs of the country.