The Federal Government says it has stepped its efforts to checkmate the possible spread of the deadly Coronavirus disease on Nigeria by acquiring the necessary testing reagents and laboratories in Abuja, Lagos and Irrua in Edo State.
Lagos and Abuja hosts the nation’s busiest international airports while the centre of excellence for infectious diseases control is the Specialist Hospital in Irrua, Edo State.
Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, told journalists in Abuja that he briefed the Federal Executive Council (FEC) chaired by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo on Wednesday, about this development.
Apart from the laboratories, the preparedness of Nigeria against the disease, which originated in China last December, has been buttressed with passive temperature cameras at the major airports in the country that screens passengers, as well as other health and precautionary health and sanitary checks.
He explained that Nigeria and Africa have been lucky not to have recorded any Coronavirus cases, which has also been aided by China’s own exit screening to check spread of those potentially leaving the country with the disease.
The Coronavirus disease, now tagged Covid-19, a respiratory illness, has already claimed over 1,000 deaths, mainly in China.
Ehanire also informed the FEC that the mortality rate of Lassa Fever, who has claimed many lives in Nigeria, has dropped by 50 percent, following stringent efforts of the government and health institutions to contain the disease spread by infected rats.
