ABSTRACT
This study examines the emergence of Covid-19 and Nigeria government’s response. More than a decade ago, scientists warned that the high rate of interaction and consumption of wildlife, especially horseshoe bats in China, was a time bomb that could potentially cause the reemergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) viruses or the emergence of unknown viruses. This warning was unheeded, and consequently, a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 (formerly 2019 nCoV) came to light, causing a contagious respiratory disease, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) named on 11th February by the WHO. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a viral pneumonia with symptoms such as dry cough, fever, sore throat, dyspnoea, body pain and diarrhoea. This disease emerged in late December 2019 in Wuhan, in Hubei province of China, and within three months, it had spread globally, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare COVID-19 a threat to world health. As of 14th April 2020, there was a total of 1,978,769 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 125,196 deaths, and cases have been reported in 213 countries, areas, or territories. The mortality rate of COVID-19 varies between countries, and there are numerous reasons for this variability in mortality.
