Nigeria conducts almost 6m COVID-19 tests, says NCDC

The Director General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa, on Monday revealed that Nigeria has tested 5,708,974 COVID-19 samples since the outbreak of the viral infection in 2020.

He disclosed this while speaking at the Federal Ministry of Health COVID-19 press briefing held in Abuja.

The NCDC DG said out of that number, 266,463 were confirmed positive for COVID-19 while 259,850 persons were successfully discharged after treatment at the hospital.

Unfortunately, 3,155 deaths were recorded from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory during the period, he said.

Adetifa also disclosed that the agency is closely monitoring the rise of the Omicron sublineages XBB 1.5 in the UK and US as well as the resurgence of COVID-19 trends in China, and other countries with a high volume of traffic to and from Nigeria.

He said, “the sub-lineages partly responsible for the current increase in COVID-19 cases in other countries XBB 1.5 and BF .7 have not been detected in the country as of November 2022.

“Efforts are being made to finalise the analysis and testing for December 2022.”

He, however, stressed that regardless of the COVID-19 variants plaguing different parts of the world, severe COVID-19 diseases, admissions, and death disproportionately affect the unvaccinated, older people, and people with comorbidities, noting that the recommendation is for people to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

The COVID-19 vaccine, he said, is the most important intervention for preventing severe disease, hospitalisation, and death.

He also stated that despite the relaxing COVID-19 safety protocols, people at high risk of severe COVID-19 are advised to continue to adhere to the recommended non-pharmaceutical interventions.