Breaking: Nigeria Surpasses 200 Daily Cases as NCDC Confirms 204, 80 in Kano

Ejike Kanife

It is a night of heavy numbers as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) confirms 204 new Covid-19 cases in the country to bring the total number of confirmed cases to 1,932.

This figure means Nigeria has surpassed the 200 mark per day for new cases. It also means the country gets a new daily record for three consecutive days after it finished with 195 and 196 on April 28 and 29 respectively.

For the first time ever, Lagos didn’t get the highest daily tally as Kano beat the nation’s economic capital to it. With 80 confirmed cases today (57% increase in just one day), Kano becomes the second state after Lagos to get more than 50 cases in one day. The figure also brings its total confirmed cases to 219, therefore overtaking Abuja as the state with second-highest cases.

With 4 new cases, Abuja finished the day with 178 total cases. The two northeastern states of Gombe and Borno, with 12 and 7 cases respectively, finished the day in 4th and 5th place with 76 and 66 cases respectively. Another northeastern state, Bauchi, with 9 new cases, isn’t too far behind.

I’m still of the opinion that closer attention should be paid to the northeast.

Debutants

There were no debutant states in the last 24 hours. As such, 34 states along with the FCT have confirmed coronavirus cases. Only two states: Kogi and Cross River are yet to record a single case.

Recoveries, deaths and active cases

According to the latest NCDC update, 12 new recoveries were recorded in the last 24 hours. This brings the total number of discharged cases to 319, up from 307. This however, sends the nation’s recovery rate crashing to 16.5%, down from 17.7% recorded the day before. This represents one of the lowest recovery rates recently.

As the daily tally continues to swell, we expect the recovery rates to drop a bit further still pending when we hit the peak. Global recovery rate is 31%.

According to the latest update, 7 new deaths were recorded within the last 24 hours. This brings the total number of Covid-19 deaths to 58. This brings the country’s death ratio to exactly 3%, dipping a bit from 2.9% recorded the day before.

With today’s huge daily tally, the total number of active cases in Nigeria is currently 1555. This means 80% of cases are still active and under surveillance. 62% of cases worldwide are active.

The NCDC Bill

On Wednesday, a bill which seeks to repeal the Quarantine Act and to enact a new regime for the prevention of infectious diseases in Nigeria (NCDC Bill) passed second reading in the House of Representatives.

Nigerian legislators meet to discuss the NCDC Bill

Amongst other things, the proposed piece of legislation seeks to abolish the Quarantine Act passed in 1926 and empower the Director-General of NCDC to initiate public health surveillance programmes or undertake surveys of people, animals or vectors in order to determine the existence of or the possibility of an outbreak of infectious diseases.

But there have been several oppositions to the bill as critics believe that empowering the police along with other health workers to arrest defaulters will eventually lead to large scale abuse of powers. The DG of NCDC himself, Chikwe Ihekweazu has said he doesn’t favour the idea of passing such a bill in the middle of a crisis.

“I take it positively but the bill requires more consultation,” the DG said on Thursday. “I’m personally not in favour of drafting a bill in the middle of a crisis. I think we need to get over the crisis and use the momentum to engage with all stakeholders to come up with a bill that will really serve this country.”


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