The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Monday confirmed five cases of coronavirus in Cross River State.

Cross River, before now, was the only Nigerian state without any confirmed case of the coronavirus.

The five cases are apparently the ones reported earlier in the state by the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH), Calabar.

The Chief Medical Director of the UCTH, Ikpeme Ikpeme, had told the hospital staff via an internal memo that the tests were conducted in a laboratory approved by NCDC in Abakiliki, Ebonyi State.

Two of the samples came from the health workers in the UCTH, Mr Ikpeme said, adding that the workers were making “tremendous progress along the path of recovery”.

Mr Ikpeme said in the memo that the Cross River State government had been informed on the development.

The Commissioner for Information in Cross River, Asu Okang, however, dismissed the hospital’s memo as “desperate attempts by mischief-makers to ensure that the state records a case of COVID-19”.

“No hospital is empowered to announce cases of pandemic in the country asides the NCDC. So if a hospital uses one test kit and says we have COVID-19 (it) does not mean anything,” Mr Okang told PREMIUM TIMES.

“The point is that the NCDC is the body required to reflect cases of COVID-19 and announce it to members of the public. Not ‘one small lab technician’ trying to assert their egos and hatch their mischief on the grounds of what they think and their state of mind could through an internal memo.”

Source: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/regional/south-south-regional/401537-ncdc-confirms-five-cases-of-coronavirus-in-cross-river.html