As Nigeria battles the first case of Coronavirus, it has embarked on the contact tracing of first case of reported Coronavirus (COVID-19) to monitor health of people that travelled with the patient to the satisfaction of World Health Organisation (WHO).
Health minister Osagie Ehanire said on Friday in Abuja that more measures have been put in place to prevent the spread.
Ehanire reported that an Italian citizen, who works in Nigeria and returned from Milan, Italy, to Lagos, on Tuesday had tested positive to the virus but assured Nigerians that the government was working hard to contain the disease.
“I am assuring Nigerians that all measures have been taken to contain and control the spread of the virus, it happened in Lagos, the state Commissioner was the first we were in touch with.
“I know the capability of Lagos State, the state has a lot of experience on Ebola so they will be able to handle the case. Also, we have sent a team from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to support the state.
“The relief is that the patient is not showing very serious symptoms and other relief is that as far as statistics is concern, 97 per cent of the case that have COVID-19 do recover.
“The terrible thing about it is that it spreads easily and people can get it without knowing,’’ he said.
According to him, the reported case is not as a result of failure to screen at the airports but the nature of the virus which may not present symptoms at that period of screening.
The minister said the Federal Government had released US$2 million to NCDC for contain the virus.
Dr Clement Peter, Officer-in-Charge of World Health Organisation (WHO) in Nigeria has commended Nigeria’s effort on its timely response to the first case.
Peter said this at a news conference on Coronavirus on Friday in Abuja organised by the Federal Ministry of Health.
“We have been working with Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to provide support on how to control the spread.
“I am proud to say that NCDC is one the best control centres we have in Africa and we will continue to partner with the centre to address the virus.
“Now that we have a reported case in Nigeria, what is important is the control and we will also facilitate other partners to support Nigeria,’’ he said.
The official, however, called on journalists to report the virus accurately to inform the publics on the right information to prevent the virus.
