The Federal Government said on Friday it had strengthened its preparedness and action plan in collaboration with relevant stakeholders to stop the importation of coronavirus into the country.
Health Minister Osagie Ehanire, speaking at a Coronavirus Inter-ministerial Preparedness and Response Meeting with relevant key Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in Abuja, said as part of initial response, the ministry was actively working with port authorities to prevent the importation of the virus at ports of entry.
His Information and Culture counterpart, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said government would not stop Nigerians from travelling to China or any other country where coronavirus has manifested.
He explained that rather than impose travel ban, there would be travel advisory to help Nigerians wishing to visit China to do so without any encumbrances to their health and wellbeing.
Ehanire at the meeting said: “We must assure Nigerians of our capacity to detect and respond to this emergency and other public health threats; our surveillance at the point of entries involve temperature detectors with scanners and visual observation of passengers.”
He also said that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had activated the Coronavirus preparedness group and its incidence command system once there is a suspected case in Nigeria.
His words: “NCDC is also working closely with WHO to establish testing capacity in NCDC reference laboratories in Abuja or abroad if need be to handle any suspected case.
“Also, the ministry is strengthening its response plan and from this meeting an action plan is expected to be developed and a committee could be borne,” the minister said.
As at yesterday, more than 970,000 cases had been confirmed mostly in China, 100 cases around the world and death toll was put at 213.
He said: “No confirmed cases in Africa; we heard a suspected case (a student in China) in Cote d’Ivoire but the student has tested negative, one in Kenya whose status is unclear.”
On his part, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the world had confidence in Nigeria to be able to handle any emergency based on the Ebola experience in 2014.
Mohammed assured Nigerians of government effort to stop the importation of the virus and advised them to take prevention measures seriously, especially imbibing good hygiene.
Similarly, the Permanent Secretary of the health ministry, Mr Abdulaziz Abdullahi, said the Federal Government was willing to deploy resources to stop the importation of the virus into the country like it was done for Ebola in 2014.
“Nigeria remains bench mark in the history of public health in general because of curtailing the spread of Ebola; team work actually makes the dream work, I believe if we work together, we can achieve it again,” he said.
The permanent secretary said the aim of the meeting was to work together to prevent the importation of the virus into Nigeria, intensify response plan and surveillance in collaboration with the ministry’s partners.
“WHO has declared Coronavirus a global public health emergency, hence there is need to increase surveillance and system activation in the country.”
He, however, asked stakeholders to make sure that the importation does not occur, saying “if it does occur, we must work together to mitigate it”.
Later at a news conference, the minister said the Federal Executive Council (FEC) had approved N71 million for port authorities to support its surveillance activities
‘We’ll not stop Nigerians from travelling to China’ – Mohammed
Also speaking to reporters at the end of the meeting, Alhaji Mohammed, said that the Federal Government would not stop Nigerians from travelling to China or any other country where coronavirus has manifested.
“We know it is a bit difficult to ban people from travelling,” he said.
“Another thing is that this is not a basis to stigmatize people who come from there.
“Even if we have Nigerians who are there, unless they indicate interest that they want to come home, we can’t force them.
“I know we have Nigerians in Wuhan; our embassy in China has confirmed that we have about 16 Nigerians in Wuhan and they are in touch with them.
“They have, however, not indicated their interest to come home. They will, however, contact our embassy if they like to come home,” he said.
The minister said there was need for the general public to be enlightened and for Nigerians travelling to be absolutely transparent.
“We need a lot of public enlightenment. We need to let people who travel know that there is the need for absolute transparency and absolute honesty when they are filling out forms.
“Some people don’t take the forms seriously and they do mislead authorities when they are asked to declare their status.
“One of the major advantages of the declaration of global emergency for coronavirus by WHO is that they understand that combating it can be really expensive and there are states that cannot afford it.
“But there are partners that can help such countries. But right now, we are in the stage of working together inter-ministerially to make sure we address the epidemic,” he said.
The coronavirus committee is made up of representatives of the Ministries of Health, Aviation, Transport, Information and Culture, Police Affairs, Internal Affairs, Agriculture and Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
It also has representatives from government agencies and parastatals as well as state governors where international airports are located, Lagos, Enugu, Rivers and Kano.