Nigeria’s COVID-19 Curve is getting steeper

As at the 17th of April 2020 Nigeria has recorded it’s highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in one day — 51 cases. This comes after it seemed that Nigeria’s curve was getting flattened, but it was obvious that this was due to inadequate testing. Before now the average number of cases per day was around 14. Now it has jumped to 15.3, and this number is expected to rise.

It’s no coincidence that this spike comes on the same day the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) changed it’s strategy to scale up COVID-19 testing nationwide.

Nigeria seemed to be doing well in the fight against COVID-19 lagging behind other African countries with 493 confirmed cases as of April 17th 2020 but with the recent spike, we might be seeing much higher numbers. On the same day, Ghana had 641 cases, Cameroon 1017 cases, South Africa 2783 cases and Egypt 2844 cases (view more global stats here). The population of the countries mentioned combined is approximately equal to the population of Nigeria.

This is a huge cause for concern as people in many states in Nigeria are not properly adhering to the imposed lockdown directives. Many of these people are below the poverty line and live from daily earnings. A lockdown is like denying them of their daily bread, and many of these people cannot afford to stock up on food items.

State governments have made attempts to distribute food items as palliatives to support those in need but several questions arise. How many citizens can state governments reach? How long will the distributed items last? In the midst of this there are riots, threats of uproar and robberies in some states and security agencies are on their toes to curb miscreants in this trying time.

The best solution to avoid the looming chaos would be for this curve to flatten and for the Coronavirus to simply just vanish into thin air, but is this possible? Reports say the virus might be around for a while.

Hopefully, with NCDC’s new strategy on testing, more cases will be discovered and more people will be properly treated. Many states like Lagos, Kwara and Kaduna have quickly put exceptional facilities in place to handle confirmed cases.

Also, Nigeria’s Chief of Staff to the President Abba Kyari has passed after battling COVID-19 for some weeks. May his soul rest in peace. This threat is real, and nobody is above it. Let’s stay safe and please stay at home. God help us all.

Note: Click here for a state-by-state break down of COVID-19 Cases in Nigeria