CoronaVirus Updates
COVID-19: Nigeria confirms 490 new cases as Britain okays Dexamethasone
BY NICHOLAS ABE
Nigeria on the 16th of June 2020, recorded 490 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 31 deaths arising therefrom, according to the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
This was just as Britain’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock said British patients would start to receive the steroid dexamethasone immediately for treatment of COVID-19.
The 490 new cases were reported as follows: Lagos (142), FCT (60), Bayelsa (54), Rivers (39), Delta (37), Oyo (30), Kaduna (26), Imo (23), Enugu (19), Kwara (17), Gombe (11), Ondo (10), Bauchi (8), Ogun (7), Borno (6) and Benue (1).
Till date, 17,148 cases have been confirmed, 5,623 cases have been discharged and 455 deaths have been recorded in 35 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
Cross River State is without any confirmed case yet.
The steroid dexamethasone was shown Tuesday to be the first drug to significantly reduce the risk of death among severe COVID-19 cases, in trial results hailed as a “major breakthrough” in the fight against the coronavirus.
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Hancock said the government had started stockpiling dexamethasone back in March after preliminary trials showed “early signs” of the drug’s potential.
Researchers led by a team from the University of Oxford administered the widely available drug to more than 2,000 severely ill COVID-19 patients.
Among those who could only breathe with the help of a ventilator, dexamethasone reduced deaths by one third, and by one-fifth in other patients receiving oxygen only, according to preliminary results.
Normally used to treat a range of allergic reactions as well as rheumatoid arthritis and asthma, dexamethasone is an anti-inflammatory.
Daily doses of the steroid could prevent one-in-eight ventilated patient deaths and save one out of every 25 patients requiring oxygen alone, the team said, according to a report by AFP.
The trial, carried out by the RECOVERY research group that is searching for effective COVID-19 treatments, included a control group of 4,000 patients who did not receive the drug.
“Dexamethasone is the first drug to be shown to improve survival in COVID-19. This is an extremely welcome result,” said Peter Horby, professor of Emerging Infectious Diseases in the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford.
“Dexamethasone is inexpensive, on the shelf, and can be used immediately to save lives worldwide.”