Chidi Samuel| Nigeria’s coronavirus burden on Friday surged past the 19,000 mark as the country recorded 667 new infections.
In a statement via its verified Twitter handle, the Nigeria Centre For Disease Control said, Lagos reported the highest number of new cases with 281, Abia 48, Oyo 45, and, FCT 38 cases.
Other states with new cases include Ogun (37), Enugu (31), Ondo (23), Plateau (21), Edo (19), Delta (18), Rivers (18), Bayelsa (17), Akwa Ibom (17), Kaduna (14), Kano (12), Bauchi (9), Gombe (4), Osun (3), Benue (3), Kwara (3), Ekiti (2), and Borno (1).
According to the health agency, the total number of cases in the country now stands at 19,147 with 6,581 discharges and 487 deaths.
The tweet read, 667 new cases of #COVID19;
Lagos-281
Abia-48
Oyo-45
FCT-38
Ogun-37
Enugu-31
Ondo-23
Plateau-21
Edo-19
Delta-18
Rivers-18
Bayelsa-17
Akwa Ibom-17
Kaduna-14
Kano-12
Bauchi-9
Gombe-4
Osun-3
Benue-3
Nasarawa-3
Kwara-3
Ekiti-2
Borno-1
19,147 confirmed
6,581 discharged
487 deaths
WHO warns world in ‘New And Dangerous Phase’ Pandemic
The World Health Organization earlier on Friday warned of a “new and dangerous phase” of the coronavirus pandemic with people tiring of lockdowns despite the disease’s accelerating spread.
The warning came as it emerged the virus was present in Italy in December, months before its first confirmed cases and about the same time as the disease was first reported in China.
The virus, which has now killed more than 454,000 people and infected 8.4 million people worldwide, is surging in the Americas and parts of Asia even as Europe starts to ease restrictive measures.
Lockdowns imposed to halt the spread of the disease have caused crippling economic damage, but the WHO said the pandemic still posed a major threat.
“The world is in a new and dangerous phase. Many people are understandably fed up with being at home… but the virus is still spreading fast,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press conference.
A vaccine remains months off at best despite several trials, while scientists are still discovering more about the virus, its symptoms and the extent to which it may have spread before being identified.
Italian sewage
Italian researchers discovered genetic traces of SARS-CoV-2 — as the virus is officially known — in samples of waste water collected in Milan and Turin at the end of last year, and Bologna in January, the ISS institute said.
Italy’s first confirmed cases were not until February.
The results “help to understand the start of the circulation of the virus in Italy,” the ISS said.
Italy was the first European country to be hit by the virus and the first in the world to impose a nationwide lockdown, in early March.
In a sign of the persisting risks, ISS, Italy’s top health agency, also urged caution after last week seeing “warning signs” of virus transmission following two outbreaks in Rome.
“In certain parts of the country, the circulation of the virus is still significant,” ISS said in its weekly report.
Many European countries followed Italy into lockdown, and most have only begun reopening this month after painful shutdowns that devastated their economies.
‘Came from Europe’
Chinese scientists have said the virus likely emerged in a market that sold wildlife in the central city of Wuhan in December, but Beijing officials have recently suggested it may have originated elsewhere.
After largely bringing the virus under control and easing restrictions, China is now fighting a resurgence after finding a cluster centred on a market in Beijing.
Authorities launched a nationwide campaign to inspect food imports, while tens of thousands of people are also being tested and neighbourhoods have been locked down.
Chinese authorities said studies of genome data, which it had shared with the WHO, suggest the new outbreak in Beijing “came from Europe”, but is different from what is currently spreading there.
“It is older than the virus currently circulating in Europe,” Zhang Yong of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.
He raised the possibility of the virus lurking in imported frozen food or in the wholesale market itself, resulting in similarities to older strains.
With agency report
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