The appointment was announced in a statement issued by the presidency on Monday.

The new NCDC DG replaces Chikwe Ihekweazu, who was recently appointed as an assistant director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in charge of health emergency intelligence.

According to his profile on the website of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Adetifa, a paediatrician and infectious diseases epidemiologist, got his first degree from the University of Ilorin in Kwara state.

“I received my undergraduate medical training at the University of Ilorin, Kwara, Nigeria and completed residency training in Paediatrics at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Lagos, Nigeria for which I was awarded the Fellowship of the West Africa College of Physicians in Paediatrics,” the profile reads.

“I studied for the MSc in Epidemiology at the School and got my PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.”

According to the statement by Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, Adetifa has also been named a member of the health sector reform committee, which will be chaired by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.

“President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the setting up of a Health Sector Reform Committee to commence the development and implementation of a Health Sector Reform programme for Nigeria in collaboration with the State Governments and the FCT administration,” the statement reads.

“This is sequel to a Health Sector Diagnostic Review Report developed by a consultant, Vesta Healthcare Partners and the Federal Ministry of Health.

“The committee will undertake a review of all healthcare reforms adopted in the past two decades and lessons learnt and factor them into the development of the new Health Sector Reform Programme.

“Meanwhile, President Buhari has also approved the appointment of Dr Ifedayo Morayo Adetifa as the new Director General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). The President has named him as a member of this important committee.”

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Chikwe Ihekweazu, director-general of the NCDC, disclosed this in an interview with NAN on Monday.

As of August 9, the NCDC had confirmed 816 deaths in 22 states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

However, Ihekweazu said as of August 14, the country had recorded 37,819 suspected cases of cholera.

He listed the affected states as Benue, Delta, Zamfara, Gombe, Bayelsa, Kogi and Sokoto. Others are Bauchi, Kano, Kaduna, Plateau, Kebbi, Cross River, Niger, Nasarawa, Jigawa, Yobe, Kwara, Enugu, Adamawa, Katsina, Borno, Taraba and the FCT.

“Bauchi (773), Niger (284), Zamfara (253) and Katsina (217) account for 78.1 percent of 1,956 cases reported in the last two weeks,” the NCDC DG said.

“Since the beginning of the year, a total of 1,938 samples have been collected with positive cases as follows – 277 rapid diagnosis test (RDT) positive only, 82 culture positive, 359 RDT and culture positive. The test positivity rate (TPR) for laboratory confirmation by culture is 23 percent.

“No new state reported cases in week 31. A total of 770 suspected cases were reported this week, representing a 34 percent decrease, compared to 1,162 suspected cases recorded in week 30.”

He urged residents of the affected states to ensure strict adherence to hygienic practices, as part of efforts to limit the spread of infections.

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INOVIO, a biotechnology company, has announced that a Phase 1B clinical trial for INO-4500, its DNA vaccine candidate for Lassa fever, has begun in Ghana.

The company said in a statement that the first participant has received the dose of the vaccine, which experts have described as a breakthrough.

The clinical trial, which is taking place at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) in Accra, is the first to be conducted for a Lassa fever vaccine in West Africa.

INOVIO said the INO-4500 is also the first vaccine candidate for Lassa fever to enter human trials.

There is currently no licensed vaccine for Lassa fever, which has been endemic in parts of the subregion including Nigeria, where the virus has killed 736 in the last four years.

Kwadwo Ansah Koram, director of NMIMR at the University of Ghana, said he hopes the trial “will be only the beginning of a long and fruitful collaboration in the fight against infectious diseases”.

According to INOVIO, the trial will enrol approximately 220 adult participants who are between 18 and 50 years old, “with the primary endpoints of evaluating safety and immunogenicity in an African population”.

“The dosing regimen involves two vaccinations at 0 and 28 days with either 1.0 mg or 2.0 mg dosing levels. In addition to providing valuable insights on the INO-4500 safety and immunogenicity profile, this trial will inform dose selection for subsequent Phase 2 studies in West Africa,” the company said.

Chikwe Ihekweazu, director-general of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), described the development as a “fantastic news”.

“The urgency of now. A vaccine for #Lassafever. We have worked very hard with @WHO @CEPIvaccines @acegid @BNITM_de and many others to put this on the #globalhealth agenda. We will #keeppushing,” Ihekweazu said via his Twitter handle.

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Chikwe Ihekweazu, director-general of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), announced the closure of the laboratory, at the presidential task force (PTF) on COVID-19 briefing on Monday.

In a two-part report, it has been exposed how travellers paid government officials to obtain fake coronavirus test certificates with positive diagnosis.

Citing the reports, Chikwe said the authorities had swung into action and found one of the places where travellers get fake results without having their samples tested for the virus.

“Last week, with the FCT administration supporting us, we sealed one of those centres here in Abuja. This centre has been collecting funds from citizens and issuing fake results,” he said.

“In these labs and centres, samples are collected from people and there is no evidence that a test is done. Results are provided. People go around with those results and continue with their travels.

“However, we really appeal to all Nigerians; it takes two to tango. We have published on our website all the authorised private labs where travel-related testing can be done.

“There are 33 of them; all of them on our website. If you choose to go to any other centre outside of these, you are part of the problem. So, citizens have to take some responsibilities themselves in not patronising these other centres.”

The NCDC DG also said the federal government plans to deploy a platform where all tests can be verified to confirm the authenticity of coronavirus test certificates.

“From our end, we are at the final stage of deploying a platform through which every private lab in the country will be reporting their results, and every single result out of Nigeria will be verified by any airline, any embassy or any foreign country,” he said.

Persons leaving and entering Nigeria are mandated to undergo tests to show they are not carriers of the virus before embarking on their journey.

But investigations by TheCable had revealed how fake results were being issued to travellers in Abuja and Lagos, after paying bribe to government and airport officials.

The investigation generated widespread calls from Nigerians, who took to social media to demand concrete steps from the government to address the scam.

The federal ministry of health set up a panel to probe the issue, while 54gene, a laboratory whose result template was being copied by the fraudsters, denied having a hand in the illegality, and also set up a validation portal for results from its laboratory.

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A total of 833 people have now died of COVID-19 complications across Nigeria — Taraba is the only state yet to record any coronavirus-related death.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) also confirmed 604 new COVID-19 infections on Thursday in 20 states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

However, according to the NCDC, the 15 deaths recorded in Lagos on Thursday included previously unreported fatalities.

Lagos still has the highest toll of COVID-19 fatalities with 192 deaths.

Meanwhile, the number of recoveries has now exceeded 16,000 with 246 patients discharged on July 23, increasing the figure from 15,815 to 16,061.

As of July 23, more than 250,000 samples have been tested, out of which 38,948 have been confirmed positive, but 22,054 are active cases.

Lagos, which recorded 203 new cases on Thursday, currently has the most confirmed cases with 14,009 infections, as well as the highest number of recoveries, with more than 2,000 people discharged.

As part of efforts to increase testing capacity, the NCDC has developed various approaches, including increasing the number of available molecular laboratories, and validation of rapid test kits.

Speaking at the presidential task force (PTF) on COVID-19 briefing on Thursday, Chikwe Ihekweazu, director-general of the NCDC, said within the next few weeks, it would be determined if rapid test kits can be deployed for COVID-19.

“We’ve been working with the medical laboratory science council of Nigeria to validate a number of kits; there are two that are showing good promise,” he said.

“So, that validation process is ongoing at the moment and in the next couple of weeks, we’ll be able to know at least whether those first two that showed the most progress are able to be included into our testing algorithm.”

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A total of 14,292 people have now been discharged across the country. The NCDC also announced 595 new cases in 23 states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

However, nine new deaths were recorded and the number of fatalities rose from 760 to 769.

Lagos, which accounts for more than one-third of the total number of infections, has now exceeded 13,000 confirmed cases.

Out of the current total of 34,854 confirmed cases in 36 states and the FCT, 19,793 are still active infections.

The number of samples tested in Nigeria has now surpassed 200,000.

As part of efforts to find lasting solutions to the health implications associated with the coronavirus, African countries have presented a united front in the search for a homegrown vaccine.

Speaking at the presidential task force (PTF) on COVID-19 briefing on Thursday, Chikwe Ihekweazu, director-general of the NCDC, disclosed that Nigeria is actively involved in initiatives aimed at reducing the impact of the virus.

“Currently, African countries through the Africa Centre for Disease Control, the West African Health Organisation, the African Union and the WHO AFRO are spearheading various initiatives against this new pandemic,” he said.

“This includes the Africa task force for the novel coronavirus, called ACFOR and the African Union Commission Consortium for COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials.

“Collectively, we’re developing our own vaccine, our own research initiatives in Nigeria, to inform prevention and control efforts.

“So, about the month ago, we launched a coordinated platform for COVID-19 research in Nigeria known as the Nigeria COVID-19 Research Consortium.

“This is convened by NCDC and the Nigeria Institute for Medical Research and in collaboration with the National Universities Commission and the TETFUND.

“NCRC aims to address broader research questions identified and our national priorities in line with the WHO research roadmap.”

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Chikwe Ihekweazu, director-general of the NCDC, made this known at the presidential task force (PTF) on COVID-19 briefing on Monday.

The development comes four days after the World Health Organisation (WHO), in its updated guidelines, said airborne transmission of the coronavirus is possible.

In the scientific brief published on July 9, the WHO noted that “airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 can occur during medical procedures that generate aerosols”, but clarified that research was still ongoing to determine the extent of infection.

“A susceptible person could inhale aerosols, and could become infected if the aerosols contain the virus in sufficient quantity to cause infection within the recipient,” it read.

“However, the proportion of exhaled droplet nuclei or of respiratory droplets that evaporate to generate aerosols, and the infectious dose of viable SARS-CoV-2 required to cause infection in another person are not known, but it has been studied for other respiratory viruses.”

At the briefing on Monday, the NCDC also made reference to emerging studies, and affirmed the possibility of the spread of the virus through air.

“Understanding the modes of transmission of any new virus is very critical for defining response strategies. For COVID-19, from the very beginning, our understanding based on other coronaviruses was spread primarily through droplets,” Ihekweazu said.

“Droplets are excretions from the respiratory tracts that can’t stay on in the air. They ultimately fall to the ground after a few minutes. However, as we have studied transmission, studied clusters of these infections, we saw increasing evidence from clusters of infections. Clusters transmissions did not seem to be enough to explain the clusters that we are seeing.

“Diseases that are commonly spread by what we call airborne infection are things like measles and influenza that can be suspended in the air and transmit over longer distances.

“Over the past few weeks, increasing evidence has emerged that in addition to droplet infections, we cannot rule out that airborne transmission is also possible as a mode of transmission of COVID-19.”

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Speaking at the presidential task force briefing on Monday, Ihekweazu said a state can only talk about being COVID-19 free when it is testing and have the effective tool to fight the disease.

He added that the states need to start testing now as the agency is working to develop its laboratory capacity to test more.

“No state in Nigeria is COVID-19 free. No country in the world is COVID-19 free,” he said.

“That is why we have to keep doing this work we are doing, testing people, finding out if they have it. Even if some of us are lucky and get away with having asymptomatic infections, we have to test more.

“We can only talk about a state being disease free when we have an effective tool to fight the disease. That will come when we have a vaccine. Until then, there is no easy way to say this. We have to keep pushing for these preventive measures. We have to develop our laboratory capability to test.

“Either you start testing now or you start testing later. But eventually, we will all test. That’s for sure.”

Cross River is the only state where any case of COVID-19 has not been officially confirmed in the country.

In a statement on June 13, the state chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) said there has been an increase of unusual deaths from an acute respiratory disease in the state.

On Thursday, Godwin Akwaji, a lawmaker in the state house of assembly, died at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH) isolation centre after showing symptoms of COVID-19.

According to the situation report of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) for June 10, 2020, the south-south state had only tested nine samples out of its over four million population, while neighbouring states have recorded cases and are battling community transmission.

But the state government has repeatedly said the measures it put in place worked in making Cross River free of the disease.

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This was announced by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in its latest update.

Making the announcement at 11:50pm on Monday, the agency confirmed 573 new COVID-19 infections in 19 states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

Lagos also recorded a high number of infections with 216 new cases.

However, four new fatalities were confirmed on Monday, while 129 persons were discharged, increasing the number of recoveries from 5,220, to 5,349.

A total of 16,658 COVID-19 cases have now been confirmed in 35 states and the FCT.

Speaking at the presidential task force (PTF) on COVID-19 briefing in Abuja on Monday, Chikwe Ihekweazu, director-general of the NCDC, called on Nigerians to be more responsible as part of efforts to contain the spread of the virus.

“Everywhere around us, we see an increase in high-risk behaviours that is inevitably leading to more transmission,” he said.

“We’re seeing cases increase; we are seeing deaths increase. Yes, we know it’s hard to completely prevent exposure but we have to do that which is possible for us to do.”

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He said: “The NCDC feels the Bill, as drafted, gives excessive powers to the Director General of the organisation.”

Ihekweazu re-echoed the observations of other health stakeholders that the Bill does not meet human rights stipulations enshrined in the Constitution.

“The Control of Infectious Diseases Bill is the first concrete effort by the legislature to address these problems and is, therefore, a step in the right direction.

“The Bill is laudable for recognising the need to rapidly strengthen the existing system for managing public health emergences,” he said.

Also, the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) and Health Minister Dr. Osagie Ehanire, differed on Thursday on the Bill.

The minister and the council expressed their observations during the concluding part of the public hearing on the Bill at the National Assembly.

The two-day hearing on the contentious Bill was held by the Joint Committees of Justice, Health Services and Health Institutions.

While NIREC supported the egislation, saying there are gaps in the laws on infectious diseases in the country, Ehanire noted that another law was unnecessary.

The minister said he would prefer the Bill to be subsumed in the NCDC Amendment Act and the Quarantine Amendment Act.

In a presentation by its Executive Secretary, Prof. Cornelius Omonokhua, NIREC said: “We observed that there are provisions in the Bill which are likely to affect religious activities or sensitivities. One of provisions is that of Section 12 of the Bill which deals with disposal of dead bodies.

“Another such provision is that of Section 19 of the Bill which deals with prohibition or restriction of meetings and gatherings. The National Assembly should avoid inserting provisions that do not take religious sensibilities or federal structure of the country into cognisance.”

Christian Association Of Nigeria (CAN) on Thursday urged Nigerians to reject the passing into law the proposed Bill.

It described the Bill as a conspiracy to destroy civil and human rights of Nigerians.

CAN National Secretary Joseph Daramola addressed reporters at the Ecumenical Centre in Abuja after speaking before the Committee on Health Control of Infectious Diseases Bill 2020 during a public hearing of the House of Representatives Committee on Healthcare Services.

He said: “CAN has reviewed the Control of Infectious Diseases Control Bill 2020 (HB 836). We have studied the Bill (in-depth) and observed that if passed for implementation, it shall trigger anarchy, disorder and insecurity. It is ‘superfluous’ but undermines every other authority in the Federal Republic of Nigeria (The President, state governors and the likes). It will make the Legislature that enacted the law become irrelevant towards implementation and control.”

“If passed into law, it will violate the supremacy of 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, with multiple ultra vires contraventions, vide Section 1(1) and (3) of the Constitution. The Bill is gross infringement and multiple violations of Citizens’ Fundamental Human Rights making it supra-constitutional entity.”

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