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Covid-19: FG Will Not Consider Travel Ban, Is Nigeria Safe?

As at last count, 183,642 thousand people have been infected with the deadly coronavirus, while 7,177 deaths have been recorded from the outbreak of the virus that has travelled from Wuhan, China to virtually all the countries of the World, but the Nigerian Government has turned down the option of shutting down its air travel from some of the worse hit countries.

The minister of state for health, Olorunnimbe Mamora, had said that Nigeria has no plans on restricting any country’s nationals from entering the country.

He stressed that instead of the travel ban, the country would be intensifying screening on passengers from eight countries which include; China, Iran, South Korea, Italy, Germany, Japan, France, and Spain.

“Even though we have not recorded a confirmed Covid-19 case in the last one week in Nigeria, it is important to remember that we are still at high risk like other countries.

 “We continue to monitor returning travellers that fit our case definition and improve our surveillance, detection and risk communication,” he said.

Minister of State for Health, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora

“We have reviewed our case definition after the disease was declared pandemic and added three countries to the existing list of five high-risk countries with widespread community transmission.”

IS FG Inviting Trouble?

The United States Government has already earmarked the sum of $8.3 billion to combat the spread of Coronavirus in the country. The amount is about 80 percent of Nigeria’s total budget for the fiscal year 2020, and yet the United States never hesitated to place the other 23 countries that have placed restrictions on travellers due to Covid-19.

Nigeria still ranks top amongst the league of countries that are yet to meet the World Health Organisations’ Universal Health Coverage target as its yearly budget for the health sector is still below 15%.

Many analysts held that a country that only released the sum of N386million to two health agencies to contain the deadly virus could not afford to open its air space to travellers from high-risk countries.

…As Nigeria Records another Case

The transmission of the coronavirus disease is globally high with China recording more than 88,000 cases followed by Italy with 27,980 as of Tuesday, 17th of March, 2019.

However, the Lagos State Government has confirmed the third case of coronavirus (COVID-19).

The State’s Commissioner of Health, Akin Abayomi confirmed this at a press conference saying the victim “is a 30-year-old who returned on March 13 from the UK after a 10-day stay. After the isolation period, she became unwell and had a dry cough,” he said.

”We went to collect her sample and we tested that sample and that sample tested positive. As of yesterday, we now have a third case in Lagos, and as I know, Nigeria. As I speak, the honorable minister of health is giving his press briefing.

”She arrived on BA 75 on the 13th of March. As of last night, we have kick-started the process of isolation. She has been moved from her home to the infectious center in Yaba. She is no longer a suspect, she is a confirmed case. We will be reaching out to every member of that flight. We are going to repeat what we did with the index case.

”Luckily, she has been very obedient to our directives so she didn’t go anywhere till we moved her. She has been moved with her family, who are in the family suite, well separated from her. This is an additional measure because in Lagos we are trying to be very aggressive with the contact tracing because we don’t want the case to be transmitted. She is doing well, she does not need any active intervention but supportive care.” He said.

Nigeria’s index case of Covid-29 was an Italian who flew into the country from Milan while the second case was one of the people who have been in contact with the index case.

Medical Doctors, Health Workers Goes On strike amid Covid-19 Threats

This morning, the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), Abuja Chapter has embarked on strike shortly after the third case of Coronavirus was announced in Lagos. The group announced that it will be embarking on an indefinite strike due to the government’s failure to pay doctors’ salaries for two months.

The doctors say they deliberated extensively on the health threat posed by the coronavirus scare, their work conditions, and patient care before arriving at the “difficult decision.”

Federal Government Is Yet To Pay Salaries for Two Months

The President of ARD, Roland Aigbovo says “The industrial action became necessary after the FCT administration refused to pay them their basic salaries for more then two months”.

He adds that their members have been thrown into financial distress due to the non-payment of their salaries and despite repeated warnings and ultimatum, nothing has been done by the authorities.

He says “payment of doctor’s salaries has been flawed with irregularities and shortfalls since the migration to the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) by the FCTA”.

The union leader adds that “other health workers who are also affected by the salary shortfalls, will join the mass action within 48 hours if their demands “which are the same with ours, are not met.”

 

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