The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), says Nigeria now has 42 confirmed cases of COVID-19 (Coronavirus).
Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, Director-General of the NCDC, gave the figure on Tuesday in Abuja while giving an update on COVID-19 in the country.
Ihekweazu said that the two new cases of COVID-19 were recorded in Lagos and Ogun states. The figure however, does not include that of Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed and the four involving the Chief of State to President Muhammadu Buhari, Abba Kyari and three staff members of his office.
The NCDC boss said that one of the new cases was a returning traveler. and the second case, a contact of a previously confirmed case.
“As at 1: pm on March 24, there were 42 confirmed cases of COVID19 in Nigeria-two discharged, one death.
“The 42 confirmed cases are in six states. Twenty nine are in Lagos, seven in the Federal Capital Territory, three in Ogun, one in Edo, one in Ekiti and one in Oyo.” .
The Ogun State Commissioner for Health, Dr Tomi Coker, who gave an update on the new case in the state, said it involved a 62 – year old resident of Sagamu, who returned from the United Kingdom.
She said the government had also identified four of his family members and 28 other persons that had contact with her.
Coker said the man returned from the UK on March 17 and tested positive after showing Coronavirus symptoms.
The commissioner also disclosed that the patient had been taken to the state’s isolation centre at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH), Sagamu.
She said, “Today, we have a newly confirmed case of COVID-19 in Ogun State. The said case is a 62-year-old male who resides in Sagamu and he had history of recent travel, returning from the United Kingdom on the 17th of March. He presented with history of cough and was tested and the test came back positive.
“All his contacts have been traced; 28 healthcare givers and four members of his family. “He is was very responsible by isolating himself since he arrived, therefore he’s made our job quite easy in tracing his contacts.”
The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, has however threatened to published the names of those who fail to comply to be isolated to curb the spread of the pandemic virus in the country.
The minister urged Nigerians to take self– isolation and social distancing very seriously.
He insisted that the government would not make self -isolation compulsory as some African countries have done.
The minister said that the government would depend on the sense of responsibility of Nigerians, especially travellers from high risk countries to self-isolate.
“We will continue to plead with those who have traveled out of Nigeria in the last 14 days to report, so that we won’t get to the point where our health system will be burdened,” he said.

By Earnest Nwokolo