The Director-General, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Chikwe Ihekweazu, has revealed that there is no state in Nigeria that will escape its share of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chikwe, who spoke on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily on Thursday, said the Federal Government was making efforts to curb the spread of the virus, insisting that it has not been an easy task.
According to him, the government responded to Lassa fever without having to shut down the nation, but because COVID-19 is a respiratory virus every state will have a share of it.
“We have responded to Lassa smoothly and nobody shut down the country because it wasn’t necessary, the response was fairly efficient.
“Now, COVID-19 is on a much larger scale – at the moment in 22 states but it will grow to every state in Nigeria, there is no reason why it won’t – it is a respiratory virus,” he said.
He added that, “We just activated the lab in Kano a few days ago. So, these are the results of the increased testing capacity that we are providing for the country.”
“The tests are fairly robust; I can’t say 100 per cent, but they are as close to that as possible. We had the highest number of positive cases in a single day.
“Since the onset of the outbreak, we are testing a lot more (and) that is beginning to show. It is only so much we can do from NCDC; we are working with the state governments.
“They actually own the response at the state and local levels, and we need all of them now. We really have to face the reality that this is an outbreak, this is a virus.
“It will circulate in Nigeria, absolutely no doubt and our responsibility as a country is to prepare more, to be able to detect, isolate, treat, list contacts, and stop transmission.”