Government preparedness and response towards COVID-19 outbreak in Nigeria: A retrospective analysis of the last 6 months

Abstract

In December 2019, a cluster of atypical cases of pneumoniae were reported in individuals who had come in contact with the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, China. The causative agent was soon identified to be SARS-CoV-2 - a novel member of the P-coronaviridae family [1]. By the end of January 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), and by March 11, 2020, a full-blown pandemic [2]. On February 27, 2020, Nigeria recorded its first case of COVID-19 in an Italian man who had gained entry into the country over 48hours earlier and travelled inter-state before developing symptoms and eventually deciding to self-isolate [3]. This incident marked the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak in Nigeria, resulting in 46 577 confirmed cases and 945 deaths by August 10, 2020 [4]. This viewpoint evaluates some of the preparedness/response strategies deployed by the Nigerian Government to flatten the curve (Figure 1), by highlighting the series of events that have played out before and after the arrival of patient zero.