NCDC warns of possible rise in COVID-19 infection

Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, the Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, has forecasted that Nigeria will likely see a rise in COVID-19 cases and a fall in hospitalisation over the holiday season this year.
Adetifa, claimed that the increase of the infection would be as a result of travel over the holiday season.

In an interview with the Director General, He said “We are prepared to see that there may be hit in cases just because of the increase in travel and the number of people returning. What we may not expect to see is the increase in number of people who are sick.”

He said vaccination and previous COVID-19 infections provided some degrees of immunity.

“Omicron is not new like it was in November (2021). The population has quite a bit of immunity due to vaccination, previous COVID-19 infection, or repeated COVID-19 infection.

Speaking further, he said the Omicron variant was the dominant strain in the country.

He said, “Omicron took over as the dominant variant in November and December last year, and has refused to go anywhere.Minor variants have emerged, but Omicron remains the most dominant.”

NCDC confirmed that there were 266,283 as the latest data cases of COVID-19 with 3,155 deaths, while the number of discharged cases stood at 259,640 as of November 18.