The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says isolation
centres for persons sick with COVID-19 are starting to fill up in some states.
Ifedayo Adetifa, NCDC director-general, said this on
Thursday while speaking on AIT’s Kakaaki programme.
Speaking on the programme, Adetifa said the Omicron variant
is more transmissible than the Delta variant and appears to have a shorter
incubation period.
“It is responsible for the increase that we’re seeing in
COVID-19 cases, but it is also important to note that even as that is
happening, the existing Delta variant is still persisting. It’s either slowly
being replaced or has already been replaced by Omicron,“ he said.
“In addition to the wave, isolation centres and treatment
centres in some of our cities, especially those that typically have the highest
burden, are already beginning to fill up.”
On Monday, the NCDC said Nigeria is currently experiencing
its fourth wave of COVID-19 and has recorded a 500 percent surge in the number
of confirmed COVID-19 cases over the past two weeks across the country.
Speaking on the reluctance of Nigerians to receive the
vaccine, the director-general said by continuing in the disbelief of the
existence of COVID-19 and not adhering to public health safety measures, or
getting vaccinated, “we’re allowing transmission to continue in an unmitigated
fashion which means that there’s a risk, even with moderate and severe cases,
our health care system may get overwhelmed”.
“If it’s beginning to look like our health system is about
to be overwhelmed, then government may be forced to put in place more stringent
measures which may include restrictions on gathering, and even curfews,” he
said.
Addressing concerns by Nigerians that expired vaccines have
been administered, the director-general said the “federal government does not
allow the use of expired vaccines” and appealed to Nigerians to get vaccinated.
“We have in place very robust mechanisms to allow us to
retrieve vaccines from the system when they’re near expiring,” he said.
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