Africa Will Be Next Epicentre Of Coronavirus

The Federal Ministry of Health has confirmed a coronavirus disease (COVID­19) case in Lagos State, Nigeria. At a time when COVID-19 and the strategy of public lockdowns introduced to fight it are competing for which can cause more disruption to the livelihoods and survival of regular people around Kaduna, the sight of relief items making their way into the government house for onward distribution was perhaps not altogether unexpected.
In 2014, the first case of Ebola confirmed in the city from the outbreak that swept West Africa set off alarm bells across the globe and unleashed a wave of panic among residents. COVID-19 infection rates are goldennewsng accelerating in the continent's most populous country, recording nearly 1500% increase in coronavirus cases and deaths within a month, according to data from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

Tens of thousands of Koranic schoolchildren were recently crammed into open vans and sent home from cities and towns in northern Nigeria as part of a controversial decision by state governments to prevent the spread of the coronavirus on their territories.
A breakdown of the 5,445 confirmed cases shows that Lagos State has so far reported 2, 278 cases, followed by Kano - 761, FCT - 386, Katsina - 239, Bauchi - 210, Borno - 204, Jigawa - 191, Ogun - 145, Kaduna - 130, Gombe - 124, Sokoto - 112, Edo - 93, Zamfara - 73, Oyo - 76,Kwara - 58, Osun - 42, Rivers - 33, Yobe - 32, Kebbi - 31, Nasarawa - 29, Plateau - 25,Delta - 25, Adamawa - 21, Ondo - 19, Taraba - 17, Akwa Ibom - 17, Ekiti - 15, Enugu - 12, Niger - 14, Ebonyi - 9, Imo - 7, Bayelsa - 6, Benue - 4, Anambra - 2 and Abia - 2.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, during the Presidential Task Force briefing on Friday said as the country continues the countdown to the end of the first phase of eased lockdown approved by the president, the centrality of collaboration, especially with the citizenry, becomes very imperative.
With falling oil prices and the spread of coronavirus pandemic across the world, Nigeria's economy could be heading to its worst days. The Nigeria Center for Disease Control in a statement on Tuesday also confirmed the new case, saying that contact tracing has started to identify all persons the patient has been in contact with since her return to Nigeria.
The West African nation now has 288 confirmed cases and 7 deaths as of Thursday evening, it said. Nigeria has so far confirmed 627 infections from the novel coronavirus, with 21 deaths across the country. A map showing the three countries in Africa with confirmed coronavirus cases, accurate as of February 27.

Despite all theses challenges and having a population of over 190 million, Nigeria has managed to keep its reported cases of COVID-19 relatively low - less than 3000 as of the end of the first week of May. It's difficult to know how many people in predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria are swayed by the idea that the coronavirus pandemic is merely fake news” and social media are likely to magnify extreme viewpoints.