As the confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country rises to a total of 981 infections, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Friday said Nigeria is yet to get to its peak.
The NCDC Director-General, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu confirmed this on Channels Television during his appearance on the early morning show, Sunrise Daily.
According to him, “From our projection, we are not near the peak yet; we still have a number of weeks to go.”
“But we are trying to stretch out these weeks even further so we can push the peak a bit further out but make sure that the peak is not as steep as it would otherwise have been if no measures were put in place.”
Speaking on the measures being put in place by the NCDC to ensure the nation’s health system does not get overwhelmed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCDC boss stated that the agency would not relent in its effort to curb the spread of the disease in the country, despite being over-stretched.
Dr Ihekweazu in his words admitted that even though the agency is over-stretched, they can’t stop because they do not have an option when it comes to dealing with the pandemic.
“Of course, we are over-stretched …,” he said.
He added, “At the moment and from what we know, we will not be able to radically stop in a day or two, or even a few weeks but what we are trying to do is really to stretch out that curve so that the health system can cope with the number of cases coming in.”
“The challenge is that we are facing an unprecedented situation.
“At the moment, as we speak, we have teams in 26 states of the country.
“In states like Lagos, we have over 50 people supporting the response in Lagos State. Our role is to support the states; we are doing the best we can, but the leadership always has to come from the state.” the NCDC boss added.