Nigeria and 6 other African countries will start conducting coronavirus antibodies tests as early as next week, as part of efforts to understand the extent of the outbreak on the continent.

Apart from Nigeria, the other African countries that will benefit from this include Sierra Leone, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, and Morocco.

While making the disclosure in Addis Ababa, the head of the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, said that these countries are the first set of countries to commit to it.

Western countries have been using antibody tests to discover how many of their citizens have been infected by the coronavirus disease, with the expectation that will help them reopen their economies.

This new development is coming some days after the Nigerian Government started negotiations with prospective COVID-19 vaccine distributors to the country ahead of their availability.

The Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, who kick-started the negotiation on behalf of the Federal Government, in a virtual meeting with representatives of the vaccine candidate, told the co-discussants that Nigeria must be given priority when COVID-19 vaccine is ready for distribution.

Nkengasong said that Africa has so far conducted 9.4 million coronavirus tests, a 10% increase over last week. These tests show whether people currently have the coronavirus disease.

Experts said that the low levels of testing in many countries mean that Africa’s infection rates could be higher than being reported.

He said that 25 African countries still have full border closures, with 23 imposing tests at entry points. He also stressed on the need to harmonize border testing and recognize certificates in order to facilitate travel.

The spread of novel Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) in Nigeria continues to record significant increase as the latest statistics provided by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control reveal Nigeria now has 48,116 confirmed cases.

On the 13th of August 2020, 373 new confirmed cases and 10 deaths were recorded in Nigeria, having carried out a total daily test of 3,337 samples across the country.

To date, 48,116 cases have been confirmed, 34,309 cases have been discharged and 966 deaths have been recorded in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. A total of 341,421 tests have been carried out as of August 13th, 2020 compared to 338,084 tests a day earlier.

COVID-19 Case Updates- 13th August 2020,

• Total Number of Cases – 48,118
• Total Number Discharged – 34,309
• Total Deaths – 966
• Total Tests Carried out – 341,421

According to the NCDC, the 373 new cases were reported from 20 states- Lagos (69), Osun (41), Kaduna (40), Oyo (40), FCT (35), Plateau (22), Rivers (19), Kano (17), Ondo (17), Ogun (15), Abia (14), Gombe (12), Imo (9), Enugu (7), Kwara (6), Delta (5), Niger (2), Borno (1), Bauchi (1) and Nasarawa (1).

Meanwhile, the latest numbers bring Lagos state total confirmed cases to 16,256, followed by Abuja (4,632), Oyo (2,935), Edo (2,399), Rivers (1,991), Kaduna (1,706),Plateau (1,665), Kano (1,661),  Delta (1,626), Ogun (1,521), Ondo (1,373), Enugu (976), Ebonyi (908), Kwara (888), Katsina (746), Osun (719), Borno (698), Abia (677), Gombe (647),  and Bauchi (580).

Imo State has recorded 494 cases, Benue (430), Nasarawa (372), Bayelsa (346),  Jigawa (322), Akwa Ibom (241), Niger (228), Ekiti (194), Adamawa (185), Anambra (156), Sokoto (154),  Kebbi (90), Taraba (78),  Zamfara (77), Cross River (73), Yobe (67), while Kogi state has recorded 5 cases only.

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Lock Down and Curfew

In a move to combat the spread of the pandemic disease, President Muhammadu Buhari directed the cessation of all movements in Lagos and the FCT for an initial period of 14 days, which took effect from 11 pm on Monday, 30th March 2020.

The movement restriction, which was extended by another two-weeks period, has been partially put on hold with some businesses commencing operations from May 4. On April 27th, 2020, Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari declared an overnight curfew from 8 pm to 6 am across the country, as part of new measures to contain the spread of the COVID-19. This comes along with the phased and gradual easing of lockdown measures in FCT, Lagos, and Ogun States, which took effect from Saturday, 2nd May 2020, at 9 am.

On Monday, 29th June 2020 the federal government extended the second phase of the eased lockdown by 4 weeks and approved interstate movement outside curfew hours with effect from July 1, 2020. Also, on Monday 27th July 2020, the federal government extended the second phase of eased lockdown by an additional one week.

On Thursday, 6th August 2020 the federal government through the secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 announced the extension of the second phase of eased lockdown by another four (4) weeks.

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The federal government has approved N8.49 billion to procure 12 items in various quantities to strengthen the testing for COVID-19 by Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

The approval was given during the 11th virtual meeting of the Federal Executive Council presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday.

The approval was based on a memorandum presented to the council by the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire.

He was joined at the post-FEC press briefing by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed; and the Minister of Environment, Muhammad Mahmood.

He explained that the approval was made to further equip the NCDC to respond appropriately to the community transmission phase of the pandemic.