NCDC Tracking 11,000 COVID-19 Contacts Nationwide


Posted on: Tue 04-08-2020

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has said it is tracking 11,000 COVID-19 contacts nationwide. The NCDC Director-General, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, said this during a briefing by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja on Monday.

Ihekweazu also said that the NCDC was liaising with the African Centre for Disease Control to obtain the COVID-19 vaccines for the continent whenever it is available. According to him, about 226 vaccines are in different stages of development, adding that clinical trials carried out so far were encouraging.

He said, “On contact tracing, right now, we are following about 11,00 contacts nationwide. “Our guidance is never to stop contract-tracing but as cases increased in any state, they cannot follow every single case in the level of detail just because the number of people to do it have become stretched.”

He cautioned Nigerians not to get carried away by the low number of cases recorded over the last few days, saying it was due to the low samples collected. He said, “Many states have also slowed down; yesterday (Sunday), we had the lowest numbers of samples collected but we understand because we have been at this for six months; there is a bit of fatigue, but the virus is not tired.”

Source: Punch