Vincent Okpala,
commissioner for health in Anambra, says five Chinese citizens have tested
negative to coronavirus in the state.
The commissioner
made this known at the state house of assembly, on Friday.
Members of the
assembly had summoned Okpala and his information counterpart to brief them on
efforts they were making to prevent the virus in the state.
The commissioner
said the Chinese citizens were tested after the state’s surveillance and
information officers alerted the ministry that the foreign nationals arrived
the state from China.
He said the ministry
is adopting preventive measures as the state lacks needed resources to
adequately respond to the virus.
“I want to inform
you that we have checked out all the Chinese in the state and they are free
from the disease for now. We are on ground to respond to any eventuality,” he
said.
“We are also in
regular touch with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control. We have put machineries
in place to check contractors, businessmen and people coming in from the
affected countries to avoid having the disease in the state.
“However, our
challenges are lack of enough personnel in the event of coronavirus outbreak in
the state, lack of resources for detection, isolation and containment. We do
not have world-class isolation centre.
“So, we are making
do with what we have which is why we are emphasising on prevention to make sure
that Covid-19 does not get into our state.”
Don Adinuba, the
commissioner for information and public enlightenment, told the lawmakers that
the ministry has embarked on a massive awareness campaign against the spread of
coronavirus in the state.
Reacting to the
briefing from the commissioners, Obinna Emeneka, representing Anambra-east,
said more more effort is needed in the area of creating awareness, especially
in the rural areas.
“You need to do more
by going on sensitisation visits to churches, mosques, markets, parks, schools
and town hall meetings. Prevention is key and we need to imbibe preventive
medicine,” he said.
Nonso Okafor,
representing Nnewi-north, recommended the use of local languages for the
awareness campaigns and broadcast jingles for better understanding by people in
the rural communities.
He also advised the
ministry of health to provide sanitisers in public buildings across the state.
Uche Okafor, the
speaker, said the assembly will continue to support the ministry to safeguard
the health of the people.
Nigeria recorded its
first case on February 24. The index case is an Italian who came into the
country for business.
The virus has been
confirmed in seven African countries and at least 64 countries globally.
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