Health Minister Osagie Emmanuel Ehanire

Health Minister Osagie Emmanuel Ehanire

The deadly Coronavirus disease has claimed a second life in Nigeria, the nation’s Health Minister, Dr Osagie Ehanire disclosed on Monday.

The minister announced this while briefing newsmen in Abuja.

Suleiman Achimugu, 67, an engineer and former Managing Director of Pipelines and Products Marketing Company was the first Nigerian to have died of coronavirus infection.

He returned to Nigeria from the United Kingdom some weeks ago and showed symptoms of the virus and died on 23 March, 2020.

However, Ehanire, at a news conference on Monday said the second death was recorded at the weekend.

According to him, “As of today, the 30th of March, 2020, we have recorded 111 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Nigeria. Of which 68 are in Lagos, 21 in the FCT, seven in Oyo, three in Ogun, two in Bauchi, two in Edo, two in Osun, two in Enugu, and one each in Benue, Ekiti, Kaduna and Rivers States.

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“The majority of them are persons who came from overseas and the others have been traced as close contacts of such returnees.

“Till date, three persons have been discharged after successful treatment. But sadly, another fatality was recorded over the weekend in the person of a patient who had severe underlying illnesses.

“We have intensified contact tracing and our strategy remains to promptly detect cases, isolate them, and follow up with their contacts and also isolate and treat, in order to reduce the spread of the infection.”