Coronavirus: Infected Italian didn't show symptoms of disease at Lagos airport - Minister
- Clarifications have been made as to how the Italian infected with Coronavirus was not detected as having the disease at the Lagos airport
- The ministry of health has explained that as at the point of arrival in Nigeria, the foreigner had no obvious and detectable symptoms of the epidemic
- The minister, Osagie Ehanire, said that health operatives carried out all preliminary and precautionary steps that were required
Since the outbreak of the global epidemic, Coronavirus, in Lagos, residents in the state have been thrown into wonder as to how the infected Italian was not detected at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, his first port of entry.
However, the minister of health, Osagie Ehanire, has revealed how the foreigner escaped detection at the Lagos airport.
At a press briefing on the issue in Abuja on Friday, February, Ehanire said that as at the time the Italian arrived Nigeria, he was not exhibiting any known and established symptoms of the disease, Premium Times reports.
The minister debunked claims that this was a case of the failure of screening. He insisted that the virus was still at the incubation stage when the man was screened by health officials.
Ehanire said: “So, it is not that it is a failure of screening. The screening went very well. The information I have this very morning is that he is stable, so all people will not be equally severe.”
The minister's position was attested to by a report from BBC which said that health officials revealed that the disease goes through a dilatory period before coming out full-blown in its host.
Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that following the first recorded case of coronavirus in Lagos through an Italian man from Milan on Thursday, February 27, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu had called on residents in the state not to resort to panic as their response.
Apart from stating that the government has begun tracking those who had physical contact with the Italian national, Governor Sanwo-Olu also said that surveillance officers had been stationed in all local government and local council development areas of the state.
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He also mentioned that tracking mechanisms to enhance the functions of the operatives had already been activated.
The governor said that the state, in collaboration with the National Centre For Disease Control (NCDC), the federal government and all relevant bodies, is doing its utmost to fight against the spread of the disease.
Sanwo-Olu, in his advised to Lagosians, said that strict personal hygiene remains the best preventive measure to be encouraged and followed.
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Source: Legit.ng
