Retrospective Evaluation Of Sars-Cov-2 In A Riverine Community Of Niger Delta, Nigeria Using Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction

Introduction: Global health systems are battling with the changing COVID 19 prevalence globally due to a diversity of factors. This study was carried out in a riverine community in the Niger Delta to determine the Prevalence of SARS nCov 2.

Materials and Methods: The samples were collected aseptically from the suspected patients into a virus transport medium and sent to the molecular laboratory in the cold chain for processing. After inactivation and RNA extraction procedures, all RNA extracts in the Eppendorf tube stored at -20oC were used as a template for PCR amplification with the Life-River Master-Mix procedure according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Results: This study involved 899 subjects, both male (508) and female (391), in the ratio of 1.3:1. Age group prevalence of males in this study revealed age group 31-40 years (3.23%) as the highest while male prevalence was 11.7% (105/899) and female was Prevalence 8.5% (76/899).

Conclusion: This study showed a moderate infection rate of COVID 19 among the population of people living in Yenagoa and calls for utmost preventive action to be strictly adhered to by the populace.