The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was discovered
in Wuhan, Hubei province of China in December 2019
following a series of events heralded by a cluster of
“mysteriousâ€ pneumonia cases1
. It was subsequently
declared a pandemic by the World health organization
(WHO) on 11th March, 20212
. As of 13th August 2021, a
total of 205,338,159 confirmed cases and at least 4,333,094
confirmed deaths had been reported globally to the WHO3
.
Several countries have already experienced multiple waves of
the pandemic. In Nigeria, COVID-19 was first confirmed on
27th February 2020 following an imported case in an Italian
businessman4
. This was relentlessly followed by widespread
community transmission3
. As of 15th August 2021, Nigeria
was experiencing a third wave of the outbreak with a total
of 181,962 confirmed cases, including 2,219 deaths since the
onset of the pandemic5,6.
Several studies have been undertaken in various parts of the
world to characterize COVID-197–11. So far, the literature
from sub-Saharan Africa has been limited partly due to the
impact of the pandemic on an already fragile healthcare
system12,13. It is established that disease severity varies from
asymptomatic to critical disease, which may require intensive
care and may lead to mortality14–16. Older age and pre-existing
co-morbidities such as chronic lung disease, hypertension,
diabetes, and cardiovascular disease among others have
been associated with more severe disease and increased
mortality7,16,17. Healthcare worker exposure remains a source 