  Novel coronavirus-19 (2019-nCoV or COVID-19) is by far the most dangerous
coronavirus ever identified for the third time in the three decades capable of
infecting not only the animals but also the humans across the globe. Nearly
6000 deaths have been recorded due mainly to COVID-19 outbreak worldwide and
more than 50% of these deaths appeared to have evolved from China where the
virus was thought to originate. The endemicity of COVID-19 dramatically
surpassed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle
East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) that were so far discovered in
2003 and 2012 respectively. Thus, the World Health Organization (WHO) has
declared the 2019-nCoV outbreak not only a public health emergency but also
pandemic in nature. Currently, over 120 countries including Nigeria were
reported to have more than 157,844 confirmed cases and 5,846 deaths due mainly
to COVID-19 outbreak as of March 15, 2020, 10:55 GMT. Artificial Intelligence
(AI) is widely used to aid in the prediction, detection, response, recovery of
disease and making clinical diagnosis. In this study, we highlighted the power
of AI in the containment and mitigation of the spread of COVID-19 outbreak in
African countries such as Nigeria where human to human contact is apparently
inevitable.
