Nigeria’s coronavirus cases rise to 30

• As FG confirms 3 new cases in Lagos
• IGP orders AIGs, CPs to enforce social restriction order
• France claims virus treatment breakthrough

By Tobias Lengnan Dapam

The federal government yesterday revealed that the country now has 30 confirmed cases of coronavirus.
It said the latest three fresh cases discovered in Lagos added up to the number.
The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), which made the confirmation said, “Three new cases of #COVID19 have been confirmed in Lagos, Nigeria. 2 cases are returning travellers and 1 is a contact of a confirmed case.”
“As at 05:28 pm on the 22nd of March, there are 30 confirmed cases of #COVID19 in Nigeria. 2 have been discharged with no deaths,” NCDC tweeted.
Meanwhile, Lagos State Ministry of Health earlier gave an update on the new cases, saying that one of the three new patients is a 51-year-old Briton who arrived Nigeria on March 8 via BA75 flight.
“The second patient is a Nigerian who returned on March 14 through a connecting flight; KLO583 London -Amsterdam /KLO587 Amsterdam – Lagos.
The third patient is a 65-year-old United States citizen who arrived in Lagos about six weeks ago, but has just tested positive to the virus.”
The Lagos State government also announced that civil servants from grade levels one to 12 should stay at home for 14 days starting from today.
Of Nigeria’s 30 confirmed cases, two have been discharged while no death has occurred from the disease.
A breakdown shows that Lagos State still tops the chart with the highest number of confirmed cases.
As of the time of reporting, Lagos State had reported 22 cases, Abuja – four, Ogun – two, Ekiti – one and Oyo – one.
Meanwhile, against the backdrop of the Covid-19 (coronavirus) global health threat and the subsequent social restriction orders imposed by governments at all levels, to enable its containment, the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Muhammed Adamu,has ordered zonal Assistant Inspectors General (AIG) of police and Commissioners of Police to enforce the social restriction order.
The police in a statement issued yesterday by its PRO Frank Mba, said the IGP, while urging officers to observe personal safety measures, further directs the Zonal AIGs and Command CPs to ensure that cases of unnecessary arrests and detention of suspects are not condoned.
He reiterated that detention of suspects must be reduced to the barest minimum and that only very serious cases such as terrorism, armed robbery, homicide and other non-bailable offences should warrant detention. The IGP further directs that adequate measures be emplaced to screen persons to be committed into police custody.
The IGP enjoined citizens to avoid social visits to police stations and other police offices and minimize official visits, except where absolutely necessary.
This is just as a French study has claimed that a combination of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and Azithromycin are effective in treating COVID-19 patients.
Techstartups.com reports that earlier on March 20, the study published a story about a new study published by NIH which shows that Hydroxychloroquine has been found to be more effective and potent than chloroquine in vitro treatment of coronavirus. While the media is focused on the vaccine race and leaving the discussion of THERAPEUTICS almost completely neglected, a recent well controlled clinical study conducted by Didier Raoult M.D/Ph.D, et. al in France showed that 100% of patients that received a combination of HCQ and Azithromycin tested negative and were virologically cured within 6 days of treatment.
According to a new unearthed paper, new evidence shows CDC knew since at least 2005 that chloroquine is effective against coronaviruses.
In the meantime, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the ‘compassionate use’ of chloroquine to treat coronavirus patients in the United States. In addition, recent guidelines from South Korea and China report that hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are effective antiviral therapeutic treatments for novel coronavirus, the study said.
“A therapeutic agent that prevents infection with novel coronavirus is highly desirable–especially for persons with high-risk exposure (e.g healthcare professionals) as well as persons with comorbidities (heart disease, diabetes, etc) and compromised immune systems. Ground-breaking in vitro studies demonstrate potential efficacy of hydroxychloroquine as a prophylactic for novel coronavirus infection in primate cells.
“Hydroxychloroquine (brand name Plaquenil) is an inexpensive, globally available drug (tablet) that was approved for widespread medical use since 1955. It is commonly used today to treat malaria, systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis,” the study said.
The study is part of the initiative from an independent group of scientists and physicians working on an open-data clinical trial for prevention of COVID-19, through the use of hydroxychloroquine in combination with other therapeutic agents. The group is now calling on President Trump to allow Americans to use the drug.
“Unlike a typical commercial drug trial, the objective of the group is to share trial data with the public and health-care professionals as close to real-time as possible (with a reasonable level of data quality assurance). Given the rapidly spreading coronavirus pandemic, the group is looking for every possible means to fast-track the effort. You can read their draft paper at https://www.covidtrial.io/,”’ the report said.