Coronavirus: Those Seen in Plateau Are Negative – Minister
The Federal Government has said that there is no new case of the deadly COVID-19 as at March 1st, 2020.
This is following the discovery of the first confirmed case of the deadly disease in Lagos state. The first victim is an Italian who has been quarantined at an isolation centre.
The government further revealed that out of about 14 tests that were carried out, only the Italian citizen who is as a consultant in Nigeria.
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Ata press conference on Monday morning in Abuja, the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, said that the number of identified contacts of the index case in Lagos and Ogun states are 19 and 39 respectively. This swelled the total of 58 people who have had contact with the index case that have been placed under supervised self-isolation.
“Currently, the contacts of the index case are identified as 19 contacts in Lagos and 39 contacts in Ogun state. We are in touch with these contacts who are under supervised self-isolation and the states have provided them with temperature monitoring tools. Both Ogun and Lagos states have activated their EOCs also.
“As at the 1st of March, there is no new confirmed case in Nigeria. About 14 tests have been done, and except that one patient, no other person has been diagnosed.
“There were 156 passengers on the manifest of the flight that brought the index case. Port health services and NCDC have been supporting both Lagos and Ogun state governments to carry out contact tracing and other response activities.”
He also said that the government has also deployed rapid response teams from the NCDC who are working closely with all the states. It is important that all Nigerians focus on the facts not fear and not to generate panic”.
On the suspected cases in Plateau state, Ehanire said no of the cases have any symptoms adding that they have all been tested at the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) reference laboratory and they are all negative for coronavirus infection.
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“The state has placed them under supervised self-isolation for 14 days. We continue to monitor the global situation with cases spreading quickly in countries as they are doing now.
“As at the 1st of March, 2020, there have been a total of 87,137 confirmed cases, 95 percent of them have been inside China. There have been 2,977 deaths across 59 countries affected,” he added.
