Nigeria has recorded the second death from coronavirus (COVID-19), the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, has confirmed.
He spoke on Monday in Abuja at the maiden joint national briefing of the Presidential Taskforce Force (PTF) on COVID-19.
Ehanire also said the nation has recorded 111 cases which shows that the cases are rising and that Nigerians must take the cases seriously and abide by the various government’s measures.
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He said that the Federal Government has established a new testing center in the University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan.
He added that there is plan to establish six additional testing centers in Abakaliki, Kaduna, Kano, Maiduguri, Port Harcourt and Sokoto.
He also said that Nigeria can convert the 300 tuberculosis machines across the country to test the COVID-19 but that this may not happen in one or two months due to the processes needed for the conversion.
Daily Trust reports that the first #COVID19 death in Nigeria involved a 67-year-old male who returned home following medical treatment in the United Kingdom.
“He had underlying medical conditions – multiple myeloma & diabetes & was undergoing chemotherapy,” the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had said.
The NCDC however said on Sunday night that “fourteen new cases of #COVID19 have been reported in Nigeria; 9 in Lagos and 5 in FCT, as at 09:30pm 29th March.”
It added that it had also recorded 111 confirmed cases of #COVID19 with one death nationwide as at yesterday.
On Monday, the Lagos State Government said it has discharged five #COVID19 patients who were receiving treatment at the Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba.
This has increased the number of those who had recovered from the viral disease and discharged at the hospital from 3 to 8.
