Updated: NCDC Officially Confirms 5 COVID-19 Cases In Cross River, As Nigeria Adds 575 Cases

...Tally hits 29,286

The Nigeria centre for Disease control (NCDC) has announced five cases of coronavirus in Cross River state, the only states in Nigeria that previously resisted to officially make its COVID-19 status public.

BIGPEN recalls the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH), Prof. Ikpeme Ikpeme, had earlier announced that five persons tested positive in the state but his claims were refuted by the state government.

According to Prof. Ikpeme in an internal memo to the staff of the hospital, five samples sent from the hospital to a laboratory approved by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in Abakiliki, Ebonyi State for testing returned positive for COVID-19.

Two of the samples came from the health workers in the UCTH, Mr Ikpeme said, adding that the workers were making “tremendous progress along the path of recovery”.

Mr Ikpeme said the Cross River State government has been informed on the development.

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The Cross River government, before now, had insisted there was no case of confirmed coronavirus in the state. The state’s governor, Prof. Ben Ayade had in many occasions disagreed with the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and medical experts in Cross River about the existence of coronavirus cases in the state.

The state commissioner of information, Asu Okang, who at a time reacted to the hospital’s memo described it as a “desperate attempts by mischief makers to ensure that the state records a case of COVID-19.

“No hospital is empowered to announce cases of pandemic in the country asides the NCDC. So if a hospital uses one test kit and say we have COVID19 does not mean anything, according to report.

But NCDC, on Monday, announced that the state has recorded five cases, being its first official index cases.

This comes as Nigeria recorded 575 new confirmed cases of coronavirus and 9 deaths from the infection.

The new figures brings a total of 29,286 cases nationwide, 11,828 recoveries and 654 deaths recorded in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

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The 575 new cases are reported from 20 states.

The break down of the cases are as follows: Lagos(123), FCT(100), Delta(58), Edo(52), Ogun(42), Katsina(24), Bayelsa(23), Rivers(22), Borno(19), Plateau(18), Ondo(18), Oyo(17), Kwara(15), Osun(13), Enugu(9), Nasarawa (7), Abia(6), Cross River(5), Kaduna(3), Ekiti(1)