COVID-19: Unravelling The Inaccuracies In NCDC Data By Maxwell Adeyemi Adeleye

Yesterday April 11, at exactly 9:30pm, the Nigeria Center for Disease Control announced a total of 318 cases of COVID-19 in Nigeria through its website and verified social media accounts. 

Analyses: 70 discharged, 10 deaths and 238 active cases. 

However, a further look at the data released by the NCDC shows that the number of discharged patients are under-reported which, without much ado, renders the number released for active cases inaccurate. 

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Osun: 10 patients were discharged around 2pm on April 11 from the state’s isolation centre situated at Ejigbo, making it a total of 11 recovered patients thus far but NCDC recorded 1 discharged for the state. 

Oyo: The state governor, Seyi Makinde, announced on Saturday April 11, that seven patients including himself, had already recovered and discharged in the state but NCDC recorded four discharged for the state.

Bauchi: The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Aliyu Maigoro, announced on Thursday April 9, that the state only have four cases thus far with two recoveries including the state governor, Senator Bala Mohammed, but NCDC, though initially recorded eight cases for the state, has reduced the figure to six following complaints from the state government. 

However, the NCDC on April 11 recorded zero discharged for Bauchi State with six cases instead of four.

Ekiti: Ekiti has recorded two cases and all the two patients had recovered and discharged but NCDC recorded one discharged for the state.

Accurate discharged patients:

As at 10:30pm April 11, records from isolation centres across Nigeria showed that the county has recorded 86 discharged patients contrary to 70 reported by the NCDC.

Findings:

Lagos: 50 discharged

FCT: 11 discharged

Oyo: 7 discharged

Osun: 11 discharged

Ogun: 2 discharged

Ekiti: 2 discharged 

Rivers: 1 discharged 

Bauchi: 2 discharged 

TOTAL: 86

Observation

I observed that the NCDC data analysts only pay attention to reports from Lagos and Abuja being the epicentres of the pandemic in Nigeria. I equally discovered that all data released from Abuja and Lagos respectively are accurate while most reports recorded for other states are inaccurate.

Conclusion 

While I salute the NCDC for a job well-done thus far, I urge the agency to look into the discrepancies in the information being released to the general public in the interest of the rest of the world, who relies solely on their data for strategic planning.

Maxwell Adeyemi Adeleye is a Qualitative Researcher and Development, Strategic and Political Communications Consultant. He can be reached [email protected]