Presidency screens state house staff, visitors
Ihekweazu, Chinese national quarantined
The House of Representatives on Tuesday resolved to suspend plenary for two weeks to enable the management install facilities to screen and detect coronavirus.
The resolution followed a motion on ‘Emergency response to tackle coronavirus’ which was introduced during plenary by Mr. Josiah Edem (PDP, Akwa Ibom).
Edem had called on the federal government to release more funds to the ministry of health and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to quarantine, treat, and contain the COVID-19.
He said the COVID-19 situation was so “dire that 3,000 people have died and over 90,000 are infected with the virus.”
He called on the leadership of the national assembly to set up an ad-hoc committee to liaise with relevant health agencies to ensure the virus is contained.
During the debate on the motion, most of the lawmakers lamented that there nothing was being done to adequately prepare the national assembly in the event of the spread of the virus among staff and visitors.
Moving the motion, the minority leader, Mr. Ndudi Elumelu (PDP, Delta), said there were no facilities to check people entering the national assembly complex to detect coronavirus.
He said anybody infected could walk into the premises, shake hands with people and spread the virus.
“This house should suspend plenary for two weeks for adequate handling of this matter and to allow management to put measures so that all of us can be tested.
“This is a very serious matter… otherwise you don’t know who you are shaking,” he said.
Mr. Isiaka Ibrahim (APC, Ogun) Ogun said the federal government “needs to do more to be pro-active.
“The facilities are not here presently,” he said, adding: “There are only two control centres, one in Lagos and one in Abuja. Nigeria is standing at zero as far as this is concerned.
“This is a wake-up call for all of us. We are not talking about coronavirus. What is the case after coronavirus?”
Also contributing to the debate, Mr. Awaji-Inombek Abiante (Rivers State) agreed with Elumelu that nothing was being done to check the spread of the virus to the national assembly complex.
“We brought down a motion to bring down our brothers and sisters in Wuhan for fear that we don’t have the capacity to handle it. Now, our fears have caught up with us,” he said.
“We saw where ministers were praising themselves that Nigeria was ready for the coronavirus. We should be more pro-active. Here, there is nothing to check any man who is symptomatic.
“We don’t have anything at all. Are we ready for what is coming to us? The answer is no. Let us make contributions that will indeed better the future of this country and that of Nigerians,” he said.
For his part, Mr. Nasir Alliyu (APC-Kano) said there were only three isolation facilities so far in the country.
According to him, they are located in Abuja, Lagos and Edo and that the one in Abuja, which has a capacity of less than 30 persons had not been completed.
The lawmaker said with a population of about 200 million, the facilities were grossly inadequate to contain the virus
“If we have to quarantine 10,000 persons, what do we do? There is need to get really prepared,” he said.
Also contributing, Mr. Ibrahim Isiaka (APC, Ogun) said the place where the infected Italian visited in Ogun is in his constituency after traveling for several kilometres from Lagos.
He said what was most disappointing was the fact that he was not detected at entry port.
The house, therefore, recommended that government should convene an emergency national health conference for all health workers to come together to address the spread of the virus.
Deputy speaker, Mr. Ahmed Wase (APC-Plateau) then mandated all relevant committees of the House to ensure compliance.
Health personnel screen Aso Rock staff, visitors
The Presidency has joined in taking preventive measures against the Coronavirus disease by screening all visitors to the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
All Aso Rock workers are also screened as they enter the main reception for public access into the offices.
Health personnel stationed at the reception check the temperature of visitors and workers upon arrival.
The visitors and workers are also given hand sanitisers to disinfect their hands before proceeding into the building.
Nigeria has so far recorded only one case of the disease, known as COVID -19 in Lagos State.
However, the country is now on alert, taking all necessary measures to avert a possible spread of the infection.
Director general of NCDC, Chinese national quarantined
The minister of health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire sakid said that the director-general of the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu had been quarantined for 14 days in his residence over possible infection of coronavirus.
Disclosing this in Abuja when he appeared before the senate leadership to brief the lawmakers on the level of preparedness to tackle coronavirus in Nigeria, the minister said the NCDC chief who just came back from China had been quarantined for 14 days in line with established safety procedure against coronavirus.
Ihekweazu who returned from China recently travelled to that Asian country to understudy the behavioral pattern of the coronavirus.
Speaking on the level of preparedness, Ehanire said there were already established isolation centres in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, and Port Harcourt to respond to any emergency.
Meanwhile, the Lagos State commissioner for health, Prof Akin Abayomi said a Chinese national had been quarantined at the state Isolation Centre on the suspicion of contracting the deadly virus.
He said the Chinese was taken to the centre shortly after he arrived at the international wing of the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos on Ethiopian Airlines flight.
The Chinese was said to have been coughing onboard the aircraft and was subsequently handed over to officials of the Port Health Service at the airport after being separated from the other passengers.
Abayomi said the said the Chinese was made to go through the mandatory screening for those coming into the country and was thereafter moved to the centre where he was being tested for COVID-19.
