Nigeria

Coronavirus: Health minister says Nigeria can handle killer disease

Monday, February 03, 2020 at 11:55 AM by Kess Ewubare

- The minister of health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, has assured Nigerians that the country has the capacity to adequately respond to the coronavirus threat

- Ehanire said Nigeria country is capable of handling the health challenges posed by coronavirus and other public health threats

- The minister discloses that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has activated a coronavirus preparedness group and would activate its incidence command systems for the virus once a suspected case was recorded in the country

Nigeria’s minister of health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, has said the country has the capacity to adequately detect and respond to coronavirus if the disease is imported into the country.

Ehanire, speaking in Abuja at the inauguration of the inter-ministerial and multi-sectoral committee on the novel coronavirus, assured Nigerians that the country was capable of handling the health challenges posed by coronavirus and other public health threats, Daily Trust reports.

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Nigeria can handle coronavirus - Health minister — Nigeria’s minister of health has assured Nigerians that the country has the capacity to adequately respond to the coronavirus threat
Source: UGC

The minister disclosed that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had activated a coronavirus preparedness group.

He said the NCDC would activate its incidence command systems for the virus once a suspected case was recorded in the country.

He said the NCDC was also working closely with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other partners to establish testing capacity at its reference laboratory in Abuja or abroad if need be.

Ehanire noted that though the World Health Organisation (WHO) had declared the virus a public health emergency of international concern, there have been no confirmed cases of the virus in Africa.

Meanwhile, with regard the coronavirus, President Muhammadu Buhari has sent a message of solidarity and goodwill to the People's Republic of China as it battles with the devastating spread of coronavirus.

In a message to the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, President Buhari on Sunday, February 2, said that Nigeria is ready to lend a hand of support to the Asian nation through this trying time, Vanguard reports.