Nigeria now has only one confirmed coronavirus case after second patient tests negative

Nigeria now has only one case of confirmed coronavirus after the second patient tested negative to the virus.

The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, disclosed this in Abuja on Friday, while providing update on the situation of the virus in Nigeria.

According to him, the patient would be discharged from the treatment centre in Lagos, after testing negative to the virus.

Ehanire also revealed that the Italian man who brought the virus into the country would soon be discharged, adding he’s so far been responding to treatment.

“Between January 7 and March 12, 2020, a total of 42 people who met our case definition have been screened for COVID 19 in Edo, Lagos, Ogun, Yobe, Rivers and Kano states, and the Federal Capital Territory,” the health minister said.

“40 tested negative and two were confirmed positive. These two are the index case and a contact with the index case. No death has been recorded.”

Recall that the minister had on Monday announced the second confirmed case of the virus in Nigeria.

The minister had said: “The newly confirmed case is an Ogun state contact of the index case but he has no significant clinical symptoms. This brings the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Nigeria to two.

“Following recent experiences from other countries and evidence from newly published studies of known symptomatic infections, the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) advised that samples be taken from all contacts of the index case for testing. It is in this process that this new case was detected.”

This means Nigeria is among countries in Africa with least confirmed cases of the virus. The spread of the deadly diesase, recently declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO), has been slow in Africa.