NCDC Reveals Number Of Health Workers Infected With COVID-19 In Nigeria

‏Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) disclosed the number of health personnel who have tested positive for the virulent coronavirus.

Director-general of the agency Chikwe Ihekweazu, on Tuesday said over 812 health workers have contracted COVID-19.

Ihekweazu disclosed this while speaking at the media briefing of the presidential task force on COVID-19.

The NCDC helmsman said 29 of the infected health officials are of the NCDC.

“We have had 812 health workers infected. They are not just numbers. Twenty-nine of this work with NCDC. They are people I know. Eight of them right now are in Idu treatment centre. They are people and they matter,” he said.

He also said community transmission is now prevalent adding that 75% of people are now battling strange illness.

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“Crossing that 10,000 mark was quite a significant event. Every night we work to bring out those numbers, sometimes numbers begin to feel like what they are; you forget that there are people behind each number. So, it is very important for us to remember that these are people. At NCDC, we engage with these people every day.

“At the moment 75 per cent of people have unknown sources of their illness. It means community transmission is happening. This is normal of a respiratory virus which 80 per cent of people are asymptomatic.

“We now have the third-highest number of confirmed cases in the continent, after South Africa and Egypt. We’ve increased our testing capacity. We have now tested over 65,000 samples. 60 per cent of our cases are in 20 local government areas.”

He said over 65,000 samples have been tested, while 60 percent of the cases are in 20 local government areas of the country.

In April, Osagie Ehanire, minister of health, said 113 health workers have been infected with COVID-19.