The Director-General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, says the country is facing challenges to curb the spread of coronavirus in Lagos, Abuja and Kano State.
The DG said this during the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 daily briefing on Thursday in Abuja.
He specifically stated that there were inadequate bed spaces to accommodate COVID-19 patients in isolation centres.
According to NCDC Boss, there are about 3,500 bed spaces available across the country which has recorded over 1,728 cases of COVID-19 and tracing over 10,000.
He said, “In response to the question about bed spaces. There is no doubt about that, we are struggling in certain places especially in Lagos. To an extent Kano and Abuja too but the biggest challenge right now is in Lagos where bad spaces are really tight.
“Across the country, we have about 3, 500 bed spaces identified as available for COVID-19 but in Lagos, we are really struggling. So, we are going to keep trying to work with them to make more spaces available and ultimately.
“We will always be honest with Nigerians, we are struggling at the moment we might have to adapt that strategy because of the reality we have faced over the next few days and weeks.”
Meanwhile, the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 has assured that the Federal Government is on top of the situation in Kano State.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation and PTF chairman on COVID-19, Mr Boss Mustapha, gave the assurance at the PTF daily briefing on Thursday in Abuja.
The NCDC on Wednesday, confirmed 196 new cases of COVID-19 pandemic in the country, bringing the total number of infections in Nigeria to 1,728.
The NCDC also said that the virus claimed the lives of 11 patients, bringing the total number of deaths to 51.
The centre said that the breakdown of the 196 new infections recorded indicated that Lagos recorded 87 new cases and Kano, 24.
Others were – 18-Gombe, 17-Kaduna, 16-FCT, 10-Katsina, 8-Sokoto, 7-Edo, 6-Borno, and one each from Yobe, Ebonyi, and Adamawa states.
