By Gbadamosi Oladimeji
The Director-General, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) , Chikwe Ihekweazu, has said that no state in the country is free from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The NCDC DG disclosed this on Monday during the press briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
However, the comment comes even as the NCDC is yet to officially report a case in Cross River State, as of Monday afternoon.
Mr. Ihekweazu was responding to a question about states who were discharging patients and declaring themselves COVID-19 free.
“No state, no single state in Nigeria is COVID-19 free, not one,” Mr. Ihekweazu said. “No country in the world is COVID-19 free. Even New Zealand that is an island state is still having new cases after a period of not having any,” he noted.
He explained, “We can’t separate ourselves from the rest of the country. We live in a context, viruses spread. It’s the nature of them, so right now, no state is COVID-19 free. That’s why we have to keep doing this work that we are doing, testing people, finding out if they have it.”
