The Federal Government has said that the proportion of confirmed cases that are symptomatic compared to asymptomatic is 39 percent and 61 percent respectively.
The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, said this on Thursday in Abuja at the 42nd joint national briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19.
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According to him, this means that if 10 persons are able to infect you with COVID-19, four of them will look very well, another three or four will have mild symptoms that can be trivialized, even by healthcare workers, which may explain the initial relatively high rate of infection among them (healthcare workers).
“We are constantly reviewing COVID-19 activities and developments at home and abroad, to learn as much as we can about the novel coronavirus disease.
“We have learned, for example, that patients are most infectious during the asymptomatic stage, and spread the virus even if they do not look or feel ill, or before their symptoms appear.
“We also learn that patients with no COVID-19 symptons may no longer be infectious after 14 days, even if PCR tests identify RNA evidence of virus in them. Global experience is that up to 45 percent of infected people may have no symptoms at all,” Ehanire said.
He said that the cheapest and easiest way to protect oneself is with a mask; in this case, a cloth mask will do.
He said, “This is why the Federal Ministry of Health constantly urges citizens to adhere strictly to wearing a mask when outside their homes and observe other non-pharmaceutical measures, especially now that confirmed COVID-19 cases in Nigeria continues to rise, which gradually raises the risk.”
The minister said that as at Wednesday, Nigeria had 409 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 which increased the total number of cases to 13,873; have successfully treated and discharged 4,351 persons and unfortunately lost 382 Nigerians to the disease.
He said, “Although numbers are only creeping up compared to other countries and case fatality rate hovers around three percent, we are concerned and at high alert. We have no room for complacency or over-confidence, and need to be ready for any sudden shift in fortune.”
He said that the Federal Ministry of Health through NCDC has activated additional laboratories in Akwa Ibom, Jigawa and Oyo states bringing the total number of laboratories in the network to 33.
He said that more are being prepared as government work towards a target of at least one molecular laboratory per state, while optimization of laboratories is ongoing in other states.
