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Nigeria may be on verge of second wave of COVID-19 infections warns health minister

Published 10/12/2020, 19:35
Updated 10/12/2020, 19:36

By Felix Onuah
Abuja, Dec 10 (Reuters - Nigeria may be on the verge of a
second wave of COVID-19 infections amid rising number of
confirmed cases in Africa's most populous country over the last
few weeks, the health minister said on Thursday.
Osagie Ehanire, speaking at a televised news conference in
the capital Abuja, said 1,843 cases were recorded last week
compared with 1,235 two weeks before that, and 1,126 the week
before that.
"We may just be on the verge of a second wave of this
pandemic," he said. His comments came a day after South Africa
said it had officially entered a second wave. The health minister said the rise in cases was mostly driven
by an increase in infections within communities and, to a lesser
extent, by travellers entering Nigeria.
Ehanire, addressing reporters as part of a weekly briefing
by Nigeria's COVID-19 task force, said he had ordered the
reopening of all isolation and treatment centres that had been
closed due to falling patient numbers.
Nigeria has not been hit as hard as other countries by the
pandemic. The country, which has a population of around 200
million people, has had 70,669 confirmed cases which resulted in
1,184 deaths as of Thursday.
Dr Sani Aliyu, coordinator of the task force, said the
threat of a second wave could be averted if people observed
social distancing measures and avoid the temptation to gather in
large groups during the upcoming Christmas period.
"This is clearly a delicate period for the response. We may
potentially be heading into an epidemic crisis but there is
still time to reverse this trend," he said.
On Thursday the Africa Centres for Disease Control and
Prevention urged rich countries that have ordered more COVID-19
vaccines than they need to consider distributing excess doses to
Africa.

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