Epidemiology, Sociodemographic Characteristics, Symptoms Assessment and Outcome of COVID-19 Epidemic among Residents of Niger State, Nigeria (March 2020 – March 2021)

Abstract

Nigeria recorded the first case of COVID-19 infection on Feb 27, 2020. Thereafter, National response was imposed with different curtailing measures including travel bans, closure of schools, markets and limiting the number of persons that could congregate in a place. The objective of this study was to evaluate the epidemiological situation of COVID-19 in Niger state, Nigeria using the data collected during the outbreak, describing the sociodemographic characteristics and epidemiological behavior and clinical symptoms of those tested and confirmed COVID-19 cases. We conducted a state wide population based analysis of the epidemiology of COVID-19 using data reported from all the 25 Local Government Areas of the state from March 2020 to March 2021 for the first, second and third waves of the epidemic. We calculated the overall incidence, case fatality rate, association of sociodemographic variables and the outcome of COVID-19 cases, frequency of different symptoms and drew an epidemic curve. A total of 1128 cases and 20 deaths were included in the analysis with sex distribution of 63.9% males and 36.1% females. The overall incidence rate was 20 cases per 100,000 populations. Commonest symptoms were cough (62.5%), Fever (54.2%) and difficulty in breathing (42%). We found that age was an important determinant of death in COVID-19 cases and health care workers were significant contributors of morbidity and mortality. We recommend strengthening of the health care system especially emergency response, availability of intensive care services, improvement of laboratory services, community surveillance and contact tracing capacities to prevent and control future epidemics.