CoronaVirus Updates
COVID-19: Nigeria confirms 248 new cases as NMA worries over home care of patients
BY NICHOLAS ABE
The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Sunday confirmed 248 new cases and 17 coronavirus related deaths in Nigeria.
So far, 4,399 cases have been confirmed, 778 cases have been discharged and 143 deaths have been recorded in 34 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The 248 new cases are reported from 16 states and the FCT, in the following order: Lagos (81), Jigawa (35), Borno (26), Kano (26), Bauchi (20), FCT (13), Edo (12), Sokoto (10), Zamfara (7), Kwara (4), Kebbi (4), Gombe (2), Taraba (2), Ogun (2), Ekiti (2), Osun (1) and Bayelsa (1).
Cross River and Kogi are the only states that have yet to record any case of coronavirus.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has expressed fears over planned treatment of certain group of COVID-19 patients in their homes, considering the crowded nature of most households and living environments in the country.
The Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, at its press briefing on April 30, had said the Federal Government was considering treating some COVID-19 patients at home.
The Director-General of NCDC, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, who disclosed this at the press briefing, said the country had only about 3,500 bed spaces for COVID-19 management.
“We are now trying to make more bed spaces available, but ultimately we might have to change our strategy and start considering homecare in certain circumstances where patients are able to provide rooms for their own management,” he said.
But the NMA president Dr Francis Faduyile Faduyile, in an interview with The PUNCH, said although the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines which specify the home treatment were of global standard, he had a problem with how they would be implemented in Nigeria.
He stated, “We can’t just conform with anything from the WHO because many of those people infected are people living in rented apartments or houses that have large number of people within the household. I doubt how beneficial it is for those persons to guard against infecting others in that area. I guess we will still have problem with the implementation of such a regulation in Nigeria.”