Nigerian Government has given reason for the rising cases of death in recent days.

The government is worried that there might have been an increase in the number of deaths not associated with the dreaded COVID-19 since the virus entered Nigeria.

FG noted that the rise in reported death cases could be attributable to fear by some Nigerians to visit hospitals or health workers refusing to attend to patients for fear of contracting Coronavirus.

This was the position of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 on Friday as conveyed by the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire.

He said there have been some reductions in the activity of treating routine cases due to fear of the dreaded virus.

“As a result of that, we do worry that some deaths may have occurred not directly in connection with the coronavirus. If a person couldn’t go to get help in a hospital because of the fear of coronavirus or doctors refusing to attend to such persons,” he added.

The Minister further explained that the latest statistics from the National Health Management Information System (NHMIS) shows that Out-Patient visit dropped from 4 million to about 2 million, Antenatal visits from 1.3 million to 655 thousand, Skilled Birth attendance from 158,374 to less than 99,000, while immunization services dropped to about half.

“All these have as yet undetermined consequences, which the easing of the lockdown should hopefully address. However, the downside of easing the restrictions needs to be balanced with a collective determination by all of us, not only to comply with protective and prophylactic advisories, but to encourage relatives, friends, neighbours and customers to do same,” he said.