NCDC DG: Nigeria has not experienced a spike in COVID-19 cases

Chikwe Ihekweazu, director-general of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), says the country has not experienced a spike in COVID-19 infections in the last two months.

He disclosed this in an interview with NAN on Thursday, while giving an update on COVID-19 cases in the country.

There had been concerns about a possible spike in the infection rate, considering the disregard for safety measures during the governorship elections in Edo and Ondo, as well as the #EndSARS protests.

However, according to the NCDC DG, the case count over the past eight weeks has remained relatively low.

“For over two months, we fought between a hundred to two hundred cases a day, but we really haven’t seen a spike in our national data,” he was quoted as saying.

“There has been a recent increase in a few cases in Lagos, mostly among the younger people, younger populations, and we are monitoring that very closely.

“If you look at our testing numbers, yes they have not gone up as high as we would have loved to, but apart from a small decrease during the peak of the demonstrations a few weeks ago, we have managed to maintain our testing numbers of about 30,000 tests per week.

“So, generally, I would still say, we need to be cautious and continue with the preventive measures, but we have not seen a spike in the country.”

Between September 18 and November 18, 2020, the country recorded less than 9,000 coronavirus infections.

However, in the two months before September 18, over 20,000 new infections were confirmed across Nigeria.