NCDC DG: January will be tough — we have to brace up for more COVID-19 infections

Chikwe Ihekweazu, director-general of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), says January 2021 is going to be tough for the country because of a spike in COVID-19 infections.

In the past two weeks, the daily count of COVID-19 cases shot up significantly with the country recording over 10,000 new infections.

Boss Mustapha, chairman of the presidential task force on COVID-19 (PTF), had said within one week Nigeria entered the second wave of infections in December, 16 out of every 100 tests returned positive.

Speaking during the PTF briefing on Tuesday, Ihekweazu said the country faced its worst week since the pandemic started as more cases of infections were recorded.

The NCDC DG said the health system is struggling to cope with the spike in COVID-19 infections daily.

He said the situation is disheartening because safety protocol has not been heeded by Nigerians.

“We just faced the worst week since we started responding to this outbreak. We had more cases in Nigeria last week than in any other previous week since the beginning of the outbreak, “he said.

“Pictures and videos from across the country paint a very disheartening situation because it appears that our messages, our appeals to Nigerians over the last few months have not been heeded and we have gone ahead with business as usual.

“Events centres are full, social activities are full and so it is no surprises that cases are rising.

“January will be a tough month, no doubt about it. So, we have to brace ourselves for the consequences of the activities that we have decided to carry out in December.”