Nigeria has recorded six new COVID-19 infections as the total cases have risen to one hundred and ninety.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, confirmed the six new infections in Osun State through its Twitter handle.

It says there are one hundred and ninety confirmed cases, twenty patients have been discharged while two deaths were recorded”.

Giving a breakdown of the cases, the agency said Lagos has ninety-eight infections, FCT-thirty-eight, Osun-twenty, Oyo-eight, Akwa Ibom-five, Ogun-four, Edo-four, Kaduna-four, Bauchi-three, Enugu-two, Ekiti-two, Rivers-one and Benue-one.

Nigeria Centre for Disease Control says it has traced 6,700 contacts in Nigeria over the novel Coronavirus pandemic outbreak in the country.

Director-General of NCDC, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, made the disclosure at the Presidential Taskforce briefing on COVID-19 in the country, on Friday in Abuja.

“Nigeria has been tracing a total of 6,700 contacts in all; 71 per cent of them have been followed up as of yesterday (Thursday),” he said.

Ihekweazu noted that people were “graduate’ out of contact-tracing after 14 days, if they showed no symptoms of the virus.

The NCDC DG said that all the focus of the agency for this week had been to improve the levels of contact tracing, by taking advantage of the lockdown.

“In Lagos state, the lockdown has been especially helpful for our contact tracing,” he noted.

Ihekweazu debunked that NCDC would never deploy anything without validating its use.

“The Jack Ma Test kits are being evaluated at the moment, once we are sure the results are the same quality as what we have been seeing from existing tests, we will deploy them,” he explained.

He said President Muhammadu Buhari had tasked the PTF not to look east or west but to find solution to the COVID-19 problem in the country.

“There is a lot of work happening in the background to increase testing capacity but we need Nigerians to be patient,” he emphasised.

Ihekweazu said the updated case definition took into account, the epidemiology of the virus and the transmission pattern seen in the country.

He said the agency would continue to review guidelines such as the case definition, as more precise information emerged on the COVID-19 outbreak including characteristics of transmission and geographical spread.

“The major update to the current case definition is that any patient with acute respiratory illness within the last 10 days (fever and either cough, difficulty breathing or shortness of breath); and in absence of an alternative diagnosis that explains the clinical presentation.

“Those residing or working in the last 14 days in an area identified by NCDC as a moderate or high prevalence region will be treated as a suspect case.

“This is in addition to the already existing case definition where the focus was on symptomatic patients (fever and either cough, difficulty breathing or shortness of breath) who are recent international travelers within 14 days of arrival or contacts of confirmed cases,” he explained.

He noted that NCDC would continue to increase its capacity to test for the virus.

The Federal government has commended residents of Lagos, Ogun, and Abuja for their compliance to the lockdown orders.

It has been four days since the Lagos, Ogun and Abuja are locked down as part of measures to contain the dreaded coronavirus.

Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, while assessing the situation, expressed satisfaction with the level of compliance by the citizens.

He urged the people to continue with the sacrifice and assist the government by maintaining social distancing.

The Presidential Task Force on the Novel Coronavirus, COVID-19, pandemic has appealed to the security agencies to handle the task of enforcing the movement restrictions with tact and caution.

It also appealed to all Nigerians to be law- abiding and self-restraining while the period of circumspection lasts.

Chairman of the Task Force and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, gave the appeal during today’s news briefing in Abuja.

His appeal came on the heel of reports of alleged use of force on citizens in different parts of the country by security agents deployed to enforce the observance of the stay at home measures by federal government to curb the spread of the pandemic.