NCDC Raises Alarm, Says COVID-19 Infection May Rise During Yuletide

By Akinwale Kasali

The National Center for Disease Control, NCDC, has warned  Nigerians  that there may be possible increase in COVID-19  infection as the Yuletide season draws closer.

NCDC Director General, Ifedayo Adetifa,  forecasted that Nigeria will likely see an increase in COVID-19 cases and a decrease in hospitalisation over the holiday season this year. He stressing that the increase in travel over the holiday season might result in a rise in cases.

In an interview with Punch Newspaper, Adeifa said that though it is prepared for the unexpected, Nigerians should take precautionary measures to avert a surge in the cases.

“We are prepared to see that there may be a bump in cases just because of the increase in travel and the number of people returning. What we may not expect to see is an increasing number of people who are sick.”

He added that vaccination and previous COVID-19 infections provided some degrees of immunity.

“The population has quite a bit of immunity due to vaccination, previous COVID-19 infection, or repeated COVID-19 infection. So. COVID-19 is not new. The Omicron is not new like it was in November (2021).

“If you look at our numbers, we haven’t lost people for a while. Even if every single death is a great disaster for people’s families or friends, it’s not anything like the Delta variant when we had a big problem,” he added.

Adeifa added that the Omicron variant was the dominant strain in the country, in November and December last year, and  has refused to abate.

He said other minor variants have emerged, but Omicron remains the most dominant.