Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Nigeria: survival rate

Aronu, Charles Okechukwu; Ekwueme, Godspower Onyekachukwu; Sol-Akubude, Vincent Ikemefuna; Okafor, Patrick Nnaemeka

The novel coronavirus is a new disease threatening the population size and economic activities across the world. Due to the poverty rate in Africa, as well as poor access to quality health care, inadequate medical staff and poor technology, Africa has been predicted to be one of the most severely affected continents in the world by COVID-19. The objective of this study was to examine the survival rate of COVID-19 patients in Nigeria using the Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) forecasting approach. The source of the data used for this study was the secondary data obtained from the daily publication/report of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) from 28(th) February 2020 to 30(th) June 2020. The mean daily survival rate of COVID-19 patients was found to be 27.5% with a median survival rate of 25.4% which is below 50%. Also, the ARIMA (0, 1, 1) was identified to be appropriate for predicting the survival rate of COVID-19 patients in Nigeria within the observed period. Further findings showed that little variation exists between the predicted and actual survival rate of COVID19 for June 2020 which indicates that the obtained ARIMA model (0, 1, 1) was adequate for the estimation of the survival rate of COVID-19 in Nigeria. Based on the findings of the study, the need for the Nigerian government to explore effective treatment strategies both internationally and locally to improve the survival rate of patients with the disease was strongly recommended. Also, the need for the government to encourage local manufacturing of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as garment, which is expected to help health workers effectively manage affected persons without being infected at the front line was recommended.