Nigeria COVID-19 Data
Description
COVID-19 is a family of viruses that can cause illness such as the common cold, Severe Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). Coronaviruses are important agents of gastrointestinal disease in humans, poultry and bovines. On Thursday, 27th February 2020, Nigeria recorded her first confirmed case of the dreaded disease when an Italian man tested positive for the virus [8]. On 9th of March 2020, a second case of the virus was reported in Ewekoro, Ogun State. The second infected person is a Nigerian citizen who has had contact with the Italian citizen. Ever since this incidence, Nigeria has recorded exponential increase in the spread of the virus all over the country. This infection has cause loss of lives, boarder closure, total/partial lockdown, halt in international flights, reduced fuel pump price at the international market which affected the country economically due to the fact that Nigeria is one of the major oil exporting countries in the world, loss of jobs, and closure of all level of institutions of learning. This article presents datasets relating to COVID-19 as reported by the NCDC, including number of laboratories established by the government for testing the dreaded virus in all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). This report includes confirmed cases, recoveries and deaths. The data of confirmed cases were generated in the laboratories through molecular tests hereinafter referred to as Nucleic Acid Detection. This was achieved by obtaining a specimen swab from the sputum and oropharyngeal sample using tongue depressor to obtain the sample in patient with respiratory disease or without. Ribonucleic acid (RNA) was then extracted from the specimen and converted to deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). The converted RNA was then amplified by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) with Severe acute respiratory syndrome generally (SARS-Cov-2) specific primers. The presence of viral RNA from the specimen collected indicates active SARS-Cov-2 infection which indicates that such patient has been tested positive to the virus and were referred to as confirmed cases [1]. Recoveries data were generated from group of isolated patients already confirmed to be infected with SARS-Cov-2 virus. These categories of patients were usually isolated to reduce the spread of the disease among those with no or mild symptoms. The isolated patients were given antibodies such as hydroxychloroquine and remdesivir, an approved drug for treating COVID-19 and were then examined on timely basis. These isolated patients were then re-tested for the second time based on their response rate to treatment. Those that passed through the second test and were found to be negative were referred to as recovered cases. Death cases were confirmed when an isolated patient eventually lost his/her life while undergoing treatment in isolation. This usually occurs during the recovery period.