Chidi Samuel| The rising number of coronavirus in Nigeria continued on Saturday with confirmation of 42 new cases by the Nigeria Centre For Disease Control, (NCDC).
The healyh agency in a Tweet on its verified twitter handle, said the new infections were recorded in Lagos, FCT, Kano, Ogun, oyo and Ekiti.
The tweet read, ”Forty-nine new cases of #COVID19 have been reported;
23 in Lagos
12 in FCT
10 in Kano
2 in Ogun
1 in Oyo
1 in Ekiti
”As at 10:40 pm 18th April there are 542 confirmed cases of #COVID19 reported in Nigeria”.
Discharged: 166
Deaths: 19
According to the health agency, As at 10:40 pm 18th April, Lagos has the highest number of confirmed cases of #COVID19 with 306, FCT 81, Kano 37, Osun 20, Oyo 16, Edo 15, Ogun 12, Kwara 9, Katsina 9, Bauchi 6, Kaduna 6, Akwa Ibom 6, Delta 4, Ekiti 4, Ondo, 3, Enugu 2, Rivers 2Niger 2, Benue and Anambra 1 respectively.
The agency also recorded an increase in the number of deaths to 19, while 166 patients have been discharged.
Nigeria’s number of infections are expected to continue to rise, as the NCDC has said it is ramping up testing across the country.
COVID-19 deaths in Africa have already passed 1,000.
Globally, over 2.3million cases has been recorded with 158,000 deaths from the disease that broke out in Wuhen, region China in December 2019.
No evidence survivors have immunity against virus — WHO
The World Health Organisation has meanwhile warned that there is no proof that people who have recovered from coronavirus have immunity against the disease.
According to epidemiologists at WHO, there is no evidence someone who has been infected cannot be infected again.
A senior epidemiologist at WHO, Maria van Kerkhove, at a virtual news briefing on COVID-19 said antibodies’ test will help measure the level of antibodies in the blood, but “that does not mean that somebody with antibodies are immune,” she said.
She also said many tests for the ailment being developed are pinprick blood tests similar to instant HIV tests.
“There are a lot of countries that are suggesting using rapid diagnostic serological tests to be able to capture what they think will be a measure of immunity.
“Right now, we have no evidence that the use of a serological test can show that an individual has immunity or is protected from reinfection,” she said.
Meanwhile, the UK government has bought 3.5 million serology tests – which measure levels of antibodies in blood plasma.
Yet, senior WHO epidemiologists have warned that there is no proof that such antibody tests can show if someone who has been infected with COVID-19 cannot be infected again.
An expert, Michael Ryan, said the antibody tests also raised ethical questions.
“There are serious ethical issues around the use of such an approach and we need to address it very carefully, we also need to look at the length of protection that antibodies might give,” he said
“You might have someone who believes they are seropositive (have been infected) and protected in a situation where they may be exposed and in fact they are susceptible to the disease.”
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