The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, has said the second patient, who earlier tested positive for coronavirus in Nigeria, has now tested negative to the virus.
According to the minister in a briefing with newsmen on Friday in Abuja, the patient will be discharged soon.
Ehanire says suspected cases in Edo, Lagos, Ogun, Rivers, Kano and the FCT have all been tested.
The minister said with this development, Nigeria now has only one confirmed case of coronavirus who is currently being treated at the Infectious Disease Hospital in Yaba, Lagos.
He said the person, who had contact with the index case, had no symptoms of the COVID 19, adding that he had not been sick while in isolation.
He said, “Between January 7 and March 12, 2020, a total of 42 people who met our case definition have been screened for COVID 19 in Edo, Lagos, Ogun, Yobe, Rivers and Kano states, and the Federal Capital Territory.
“40 tested negative and two were confirmed positive. These two are the index case and contact with the index case. No death has been recorded.”
He said the index case, an Italian, is making good progress and should be released from the hospital next week.
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Nigeria confirmed its first case, a 44-year-old Italian citizen, in February, after a series of tests were carried out by the Virology Laboratory of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) says the new coronavirus outbreak can now be characterised as a pandemic.
Briefing journalists in Geneva, Switzerland, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “COVID-19 can be characterised as a pandemic.”
He also said that “we have never before seen a pandemic sparked by a coronavirus.
“The spread and severity of the deadly new coronavirus, which has infected more than 110,000 people and killed more than 4,000, is alarming.
