Since the first case was recorded in the country on February 27, 2020, no fewer than 165,215 Nigerians have contracted the virus, while 155,371 people have recovered and 2,063 deaths have been recorded.
Four survivors narrated their COVID-19 experience in an interview with our correspondent.
A 22-year-old graduate of Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Oreoluwa Sowemimo, said she contracted the virus in a driving school.
She said, “I returned home one day from driving school and noticed that I couldn’t taste or smell anything. It was two days before Christmas.
“Of course when I did the COVID-19 test, the result was positive. As we know, coronavirus affects people differently. Some people contract the virus and are asymptomatic. I wasn’t; I got very sick. I had body pains, I was weak, and I couldn’t keep food down. It was really terrible.”
For 27-year-old Nafisat Atiku, who resides in the Federal Capital Territory, she told our correspondent that she contracted the virus from a colleague at work who didn’t know she already had the virus.
Narrating her experience, she said, “I woke up one day with severe pains in my legs. I felt weak and light-headed. It was really terrible. Even after I recovered from COVID-19 I still have occasional chest pains.
“A colleague of mine had the virus but he was asymptomatic; he was fine. His wife, on the other hand, was asthmatic. She got the virus from him and became very ill. She didn’t survive.”
A nurse, who preferred to be anonymous, said as a frontline worker she suffered symptoms that nearly claimed her life.
“The worst part of the sickness was my inability to breathe. A common symptom of the COVID-19 infection is shortness of breath, as the virus attacks the lungs. I wasn’t getting enough oxygen. I had very bad palpitations and my heart was always pounding. It was hell!”
“But that was not all. My legs began to swell. I couldn’t walk for almost five days. It was five days of depression,” she said.
Also, a health administrator, Mr Kolade Johnson, said he got infected while on duty as a frontline health worker.
“I got exposed to the virus in March 2020, when a patient with flu-like symptoms was admitted into the hospital where I worked. The patient did not disclose that she just returned to the country and might have contracted COVID-19.
“By the time it was discovered that the patient indeed had COVID-19, it was too late; some hospital staff already contracted the virus,” he said.
Advising Nigerians on the need to keep obeying the COVID-19 protocols, the director of social programmes, FemiHandbags/My World of Bags, Sinmi Olayebi, said, “We will truly begin to realise the effects of the work we are doing when every citizen, starting from our primary focus areas in the Southwest, is COVID-19 literate.
“And more so, when they apply that literacy to adopting strict safety measures such as social distancing, handwashing and the use of PPE to drastically check the spread of the virus and contribute to eventually eradicating the virus.”
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