By GRACE AUDU, Abuja –
Nigeria on Saturday recorded 386 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 43,537.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), which made this known on its official twitter handle @NCDCgov, also put the number of discharged cases at 20,087 and deaths at 883.
According to the health agency, the 386 new cases came from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) with 130, Lagos-65, Ondo-37, Osun-29, Plateau-23, and Rivers-15.
The remaining cases from Enugu with 14, Nasarawa-12, Bayelsa-11, Ebonyi-11, Ekiti-9, Oyo-8, Edo-8, Abia-6, Ogun-3, Katsina-3, Imo-1 and Adamawa-1.
Meanwhile, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State has announced the closure of the Eti-Osa Isolation Centre with effect from Friday night.
Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, addressing Lagosians on gradual easing of COVID-19 lockdown, at Lagos House, Marina, on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2020.
Sanwo-Olu announced the closure at Lagos House, Marina, during the 17th update on the management of coronavirus in the state.
The governor said that the Agidingbi Isolation Centre would also be closed and the patients relocated to a large capacity centre – Indo-Centre in Anthony area, which would be soon be inaugurated.
“Over the last four, five months, we have built excess capacity centre, but that is only the way to go, you cannot over-prepare.
“We have got to a stage where we need to balance the economics of this and which of these facilities do we need to keep running.
“Some of them now are having less than 20 per cent of occupancy.
“This is why we reach a conclusion to shut Eti-Osa facility and another one in Lekki,’’ the governor said.
He explained that the Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH) in Yaba “is now also gradually being reverted back to its former status as a hospital to cater to all forms of infectious diseases’’.
He added that the Ca-COVID dedicated tent on the IDH grounds would, however, remain strictly for COVID-19 cases.
Sanwo-Olu said that in June, the government further expanded COVID-19 testing capacity in Lagos with the accreditation of seven private laboratories.
According to him, in the week ended July 26, the government successfully tested close to 9,000 samples in Lagos State, across the public and private sector laboratories.
He said that it showed a 50 per cent increase from the approximately 6,000 samples tested in each of the preceding two weeks.
The governor said that the increase in testing would lead to an increase in the number of daily confirmed cases of the virus in the state.
According to him, this is a welcome development, since the government’s capacity to contain the pandemic depends significantly on how successful it is in identifying all the existing cases.
“I must, however, also mention that we have seen a general decrease in positivity rates in Lagos State over the past two weeks, which, combined with the increase in testing numbers, paints a very encouraging picture of the outcome of our response strategy.
“We will continue to fine-tune our efforts and strategies to build on our successes and close any existing gaps.
“It has now been five months since the first case of coronavirus was recorded in Nigeria.
“Since then, Nigeria has seen more than 43,000 infections and significant disruption of social, religious, educational and economic life, like every other part of the world.
“As at July 31, Lagos state has had a total of 15,150 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 10,835 persons who have recovered and discharged.
“We have sadly lost 194 persons to the virus.
“This leaves us with 1,813 active cases in community and 96 under management across various isolation centres in the state,’’ he said. (With additional NAN report)
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