Nigeria Centre for Disease Control says has it is tracking 11,000 COVID-19 contacts across the country.
NCDC Director-General, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, said the agency would not relent in tracing contacts as this would enable the body to curb the pandemic.
Ihekweazu stated this during a briefing by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja on Monday.
The NCDC boss added that the body was liaising with the African Centre for Disease Control to obtain the COVID-19 vaccines for the continent whenever it is available.
He disclosed that about 226 vaccines were at different stages of development, adding that clinical trials carried out so far were encouraging.
Ihekweazu said, “On contact tracing, right now, we are following about 11,00 contacts nationwide. When we talk about community transmission, the intensity of transmission in somewhere like Lagos and FCT is different than in order states where you have a handful of cases every day.
“So, when you have fewer cases, you can really pay a lot more attention to contact-tracing because your cases are fewer. When you are in somewhere like Lagos where you have over the last few months, 100 to 150 new cases every single day, it becomes a little more difficult to do in-depth contact-tracing for each of them.
“Our guidance is never to stop contract-tracing but as cases increased in any state, they cannot follow every single case in the level of detail just because the number of people to do it become stretched.”
The NCDC boss warned Nigerians not to get carried away by the drop in the infection rate infection recorded over the last few days, stating that it was due to the low samples collected.
He said many states had slow down due to fatigue, but warned that the virus should not be taken for granted.
Ihekweazu said, “Many states have also slowed down; yesterday (Sunday), we had the lowest numbers of samples collected but we understand because we have been at this for six months; there is a bit of fatigue, but the virus is not tired.
“Please don’t over-interpret the reduction in cases over the last few days; our curve is not looking too bad, but remember, it is a big country. The curves are different in the different states and mean different things as well. We are not in the worst-case scenario by any means.”
The DNCDC boss also disclosed that seven private laboratories were conducting testing in Lagos, two in Port Harcourt while two were at the final stages of accreditation in Abuja.