Nigeria confirms its first case of coronavirus

28th Feb 2020 | Elizabeth Sasu

Nigeria has announced that it has recorded its first case of coronavirus.

This is the third confirmed case in Africa, after one apiece Egypt and Algeria, and the first in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Lagos has a population of over 20 million people and is Nigeria’s economic capital.

“The case which was confirmed on 27/02/2020 is the first case to be reported in Nigeria since the beginning of the outbreak in China in January 2020,” the Health Ministry said.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in a statement also said: “the patient is clinically stable and is being managed at the Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba.”

Since its detection in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, the novel coronavirus, also called COVID-19, has claimed more than 2,700 lives and has infected over 80,000 people across almost 50 countries.

It is reported that an Italian national who works in Nigeria and had returned from Milan to Lagos on 25th of February 2020 had contracted the disease prior to his arrival in Nigeria by air.

Source: gh-aviation