A survey conducted by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research showed that 23% of people in the West African nation’s commercial hub of Lagos, which has a population of 21 million people, have been infected with the disease. The number is far above the official estimate of 152,616 infections in the whole of Nigeria.
“These rates of infection are higher than those reported through the national surveillance system and reveal that the spread of infection in the states surveyed is wider than is obvious from surveillance activities,” the two agencies said in a joint statement on Tuesday.
The findings were based on blood samples collected from at least 10,000 individuals across Lagos and three other Nigerian states in September and October. The samples were tested for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies applying locally validated laboratory tests, the agencies said.
