No coronavirus-free state in Nigeria —NCDC 

The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, said on Monday no state in Nigeria was free of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ihekweazu, who stated this at the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 media briefing in Abuja, added that some states might not have recorded any COVID-19 case at the moment, but they would eventually do.

Cross River is the only state in Nigeria without a single case of COVID-19 as at Monday night.

However, health experts had faulted the state government’s claim on the matter, saying several cases of patients with symptoms similar to the virus had been discovered in several hospitals across the state.

While giving an update on his visit to four states —Akwa Ibom, Edo, Plateau, and Lagos —the NCDC chief commended the governors of the four states for aggressively investing in the COVID-19 response using state resources.

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He lauded the Edo State government for its innovative approach such as the inclusion of Edo in the diaspora in various universities around the world to understand how they were responding.

He said: “We are really impressed by the work going on in Edo.

“In Edo, we met a very dedicated team at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital and the Stella Obasanjo Hospital and really saw a set of clinicians working very hard innovatively, to deal with the challenges.”

Ihekweazu commended Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel, for investing aggressively in the response and public health in general.

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