COVID-19: Confirmed Cases Rise as Abba Kyari, Three Staff Tested Positive

• COVID-19: Confirmed Cases Rise as Abba Kyari, Three Staff Tested Positive

The Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, tested positive to coronavirus on Monday, eight days after returning from Germany.

Kyari had travelled on March 7th to meet with officials of Siemens in Munich to discuss the recently signed agreement, the Nigerian electricity expansion programme, between Nigerian and Siemens.

Kyari, who arrived the country on March 14th, was in a meeting discussing how to contain the spread of COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria throughout Sunday before reportedly started to cough and subsequently submit himself for testing. On Monday, Kyari was informed of his status.

However, a recent report by the Vanguard, said three other staff of the Chief of Staff tested positive to the virus on Tuesday throwing the entire State House in panic given the number of people who had interacted with Kyari since his arrival.

Another unconfirmed report said the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, who was also at a meeting with Kyari before he tested positive, surprisingly resumed to work on Monday afternoon.

Accordingly, most of his aides were said to put on face masks and had hand gloves on when they resume to work yesterday.

In similar news, Bala Mohammed, the Governor of Bauch State, who had earlier announced he shook hands with Mohammed, the son of former Vice-President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, during a trip to Lago, has also tested positive to the virus.

The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) announced that the total confirmed cases in the country have risen to 42 on Tuesday.

According to NCDC, “2 new cases of #COVID19 have been confirmed in Nigeria. 1 is in Lagos State & 1 in Ogun One case is a returning traveler, the centre stated on its twitter page @NCDCgov. “The second case is contact of a previously confirmed case As at 1 pm on March 24, there are 42 confirmed cases of #COVID19 in Nigeria-2 discharged, 1 death.”