Nigeria’s Covid-19 response and struggle to stem the tide of cases

Abstract

On March 22, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) pro- claimed the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 or Covid-19), and the virus has had global impact, with significant mortality rates observed in high-income countries (HICs) in Europe and the United States (USA). Numerous low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have significant unmet healthcare demands, and citizens frequently experience the negative repercussions of their inadequate health care systems. Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa with an estimated 200 million inhabitants, is not an exception. With the lessons from the 2014 Ebola pandemic in West African states still vivid, procedures such as temperature checks at international airports and medical and travel history questionnaires were swiftly implemented beginning in early February 2020.