The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has said that about 12,000 contacts are being traced across the country for COVID-19 samples and testing.
The Director-General, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, who disclosed this at the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing in Abuja, urged Nigerians to desist from stigmatising persons infected with the virus.
He said:
“We are at the beginning of a journey and until we have a vaccine, we will need to learn to live with COVID-19 in our country. If we start stigmatising each other, I don’t know where to stop because the same group stigmatising one group will end up being infected tomorrow.
“In terms of the number of contact tracing, every day there are new cases and new contacts but cumulatively, there are 12,000 contacts across the country.”
Regarding the suggestions that sample collection centres should be set up at market places across the country, the DG stated that “We are driven by evidence and if we see increasing transmission in the market, we will go to that market but we are not going to set up a stand in every market across Nigeria to collect samples. We look at the date to make decision but if we have to go to the market, we will do that exactly.”
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