The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has disclosed that the death toll of the pandemic on the continent has surpassed 35,000; meanwhile, Nigeria has shutdown two (2) of its COVID-19 isolation centre due to lack of patients. According to Africa CDC, of 1,437,339 infections about 1,185,054 patients have recovered which is very positive. South Africa with 668,529 cases is the 10th most-affected nation globally while the first (1st) in Africa. Nigeria on the other hand is the fourth most impacted country in the continent after South Africa, Egypt and Ethiopia.
Nigeria with over 58,000 reported infections with more than a thousand deaths has been recording a decrease in case of infected persons with daily figures not surpassing 300 - an indication that the country is heading for a plateau in its epidemiological curve. With this recent development, two of the four isolation centres in the Federal Capital Territories has been shutdown.
Isolation centres located in Karu and Asokoro general hospitals are now closed with only Idu and THISDAY Dome will holding COVID-19 patients in Abuja. According to the acting secretary, Health and Human Services Secretariat, Federal Capital Territory Administration Mohammed Kawu, “We officially converted both centres to conventional hospitals on August 24, 2020, because the number of COVID-19 patients is tremendously low.”
He further added that “THIS DAY Dome also has a 300-bed capacity, which is enough to cater to patients in the Nigerian capital. Both centres were intentionally built as isolation centres.”
In conclusion during the Presidential TaskForce on COVID-19 briefing, the director-general of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Chikwe Ihekweazu, noted that “One critical issue is the number of tests being done, and yes the number of tests has actually declined,” which he suspects to be the reason for the reduction of infected persons in the country.
