Scores of mysterious deaths in northern Nigeria have sparked speculation that coronavirus may be moving untracked through Africa’s most populous nation, which has reported few confirmed cases but conducted fewer tests than other countries with smaller populations.
Ten weeks after Nigeria reported sub-Saharan Africa’s first coronavirus cases, the country has recorded 4,400 infections out of a population of more than 200m. That is compared with about 4,300 cases in Ghana, where the population is only 30m, 10,000 cases in South Africa and 9,400 cases in Egypt.
Nigerian officials concede that the low count is due in part to limited testing. Nigeria has tested just 27,000 samples, compared with about 356,000 tests in South Africa, which has a population less than a third of the size.