ENGAGEMENT OF CONSULTANCY FIRM TO CONDUCT THE NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF THE SECONDARY HEALTH FACILITIES SELECTED IN 35 STATES TO BE EQUIPPED FOR PROVISION OF CRITICAL CARE FOR COVID-19 PATIENTS AND OTHER DISEASES OF PUBLIC HEALTH IMPORTANCE

1. Background
The first case of COVID-19 in Nigeria was diagnosed on the 27th of February 2020, in Lagos State. Surveillance data of June 2021 show over 160,000 confirmed cases with a case fatality rate of 1.3%. Lagos State has the highest number of confirmed cases followed by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Other states with high number of confirmed cases are spread across the geo-political zones of the country: North-West – Kaduna and Kano; North Central- Plateau and Kwara; South South – Rivers, Delta and Edo; South West – Ogun, Ondo and Oyo. As of 10th June 2021, these 11 states and FCT had the highest number of confirmed cases nationwide.
On July 8, 2021, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) announced the detection of the highly infectious Delta variant (which is already identified in several African countries), while the Omicron variant was also detected in late November, 2021 from samples collected in October 2021. The challenges is that Nigeria (the largest economy in Africa and a major trans-shipment hub for trade between Asia, Americas, and Europe) trades directly with and receives large number of travelers from countries with emergence of the highly transmissible COVID-19 variants. Effective epidemic preparedness and response plan to enable Nigeria respond to the emerging COVID-19 variants and future outbreaks from similar pathogens of interest is a national priority.