House of Representatives has mandated management of the National Assembly to shut the parliament for two weeks to facilitate the installation of infrastructure and other preventive measures that would protect lawmakers and workers from coronavirus.
The House urged Federal Government to release emergency funds to Federal Ministry of Health, as well as other health agencies and institutions to eliminate the threat of coronavirus in Nigeria.
It also called for the immediate reactivation of all centres established and designated for the treatment and management of Ebola cases in the country for the management of suspected cases and victims of coronavirus.
These were part of the House resolutions following the adoption of a motion by Mr Unyime Idem on the “Need for Emergency Response and Tackling of Deadly Coronavirus (COVID-19)” at yesterday’s plenary.
The Green Chamber called on the Federal Government to ensure that at least two functional isolation centres were designated in each of the six geopolitical zones for the quarantine and management of suspected cases of coronavirus.
It also called on government to ensure the provision of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers, and more drugs and equipment in hospitals and health facilities, especially at emergency and intensive care units.
Idem, in his lead debate, said the first case of coronavirus infection was recorded in the country in Lagos, after an Italian tested positive to the virus, stressing that it was imperative for government to take steps to prevent the spread of the virus in the country.
“The socio-economic implications of the outbreak of COVID-19 in Nigeria can be very disastrous. This can be threatening to the lives of about 200 million Nigerians. Hence, events have been cancelled or rescheduled as the disease ravages the world.
“With the current situation of health facilities in Nigeria, the virus, if not properly checked or curtailed, will easily be transmitted within the larger population and may lead to a wider catastrophe,” he said.
Minority Leader, Mr Ndudi Elumelu, said there was need for the National Assembly to tackle the issue with seriousness: “I think that this is very serious and I think that this House should suspend plenary for a period of two weeks or thereabouts for the singular fact of satisfying everybody and also allow management to put measures in place so that some of us can be tested. It might sound like a joking matter, but it is a very serious and this House should take it as such. Otherwise, you don’t know who you will be shaking. The man who was the driver of the Italian has not been seen. Jokes apart, I think that the management and the leadership should ensure that this matter is given the seriousness that it deserve,” Elumelu said.
Awaji-Inombek Abiante said there was need for concerted effort to be made in tackling the virus, noting that it was unfortunate that, despite the anxiety created in the polity by COVID-19, there was no single thermometer to test people coming into the National Assembly.
NCDC DG quarantined
Director-general of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Mr Chikwe Ihekweazu, has been quarantined for 14 days over coronavirus fears after he returned from a trip to China.
Minister of Health, Mr Osagie Ehanire, disclosed this on Tuesday when he updated Senate on efforts of his ministry to contain the spread of coronavirus in the country.
He told Senate that Ihekweazu was quarantined because it was the standard practice for those who just returned from China, where the disease broke out in December.
Ehanire said his isolation was part of protocol that anybody who has been out of the country is immediately isolated: “If he is positive, he is sent straight away to the isolation centre. But anybody who is coming from any of those areas, after being screened and with zero symptoms, first we give him good advisory that, in the interest of everybody around him, keep yourself isolated in your house.”
“Meanwhile quarantine means keeping somebody who is healthy on observation to see if he develops the symptoms of the disease. If he develops the symptoms, he moves from quarantine to isolation. “Isolation means you have it and you are not allowed to contact anybody else because you can infect other people. Ihekweazu is in quarantine in his own house, that is international standard practice, recommended by WHO. After the mandatory period, then he is free to come out, this is the standard practice in many countries.”
Meanwhile, the Chinese man who arrived Lagos Monday on an Ethiopian Airlines with cough has tested negative for coronavirus, Lagos State Health Commissioner, Mr Akin Abayomi, has said.
He was reportedly seen coughing on board an Ethiopian Airlines flight enroute Addis Ababa-Lagos on Monday evening and at the arrival hall of Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, he was also observed to have coughed twice. He was immediately separated from other passengers and after checks by port health officials, he was scheduled to undergo other tests.
Confirming the development, MMIA manager, Mrs Victoria Shinaba, said, “We are still expecting the results from Lagos State.’’
FG moves to prevent spread in high-risk areas
Federal Ministry of Environment has said it would deploy environmental health officers (EHO) to high-risk areas in Nigeria to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Mr Mohammad Abubakar, Minister of Environment, made this known while briefing newsmen on the environmental health response to COVID-19 outbreak in Nigeria on Tuesday in Abuja.
According to Abubakar, the ministry is taking this measure to support Ministry of Health’s containment strategy against the disease.
He said that large pool of environmental health volunteers would be mobilised for this purpose.
The minister stated that EHOs would be deployed to public places, including markets, schools, motor parks and train stations.
Abubakar said, based on the foregoing, the Nigerian response needs to be comprehensive, multistakeholder and multisectoral in nature, learning from countries presently at war with the novel COVID-19.
“International best practices of instituting cordon sanitaire and social distancing in our communities where needed will be utilised to limit contact of people with those that may be infected with the viral disease.
“In the same vein, environmental decontamination and disinfection shall be undertaken in high exposure areas with a view of killing the enveloped viruses,” he said.
He urged the ministry of environment at the state level to be proactive and key into the preparedness in their respective states: “I hereby charge EHO in states and local ports to engage butchers to ensure they do not handle, slaughter, dress and prepare meats originating from wild animals or sick livestock, which have died from unknown causes.”
He also advised Nigerians to regularly wash their hands, and cover their mouth and nose while coughing and sneezing.
Senate seeks more standard isolation centres
Senate President Ahmad Lawan has called on the Federal Government to provide more standard isolation centres across the country to check likely spread of Coronavirus.
He made the call at a meeting with the health minister and officials of NCDC at the National Assembly Complex, yesterday.
While raising concerns over the fact that the centre in Gwagwalada, in the Federal Capital Territory, was uncompleted, Lawan called for the establishment of standard centres in the six geopolitical zones.
“We need to do something pragmatic. The building in Gwagwalada is not completed so we have a temporary centre and the temporary centre is not a standard centre.
“God forbid, if something happens in Abuja, Nasarawa, Niger or Kogi, because they don’t have isolation centres, what do we do?
“Some states provide response centres. I imagine we should have the standard set by the Federal Ministry of Health for the centre for disease control rather than states doing whatever they think they should do.
“For now, I think only Lagos has a standard and functioning centre. The one in Gwagwalada is not ready, the one in Kano is not ready, that is my understanding.
“I think we need to step up; because this is an emergency, we should do whatever it is to provide the centres, to make them functional, should there be any need.
“If there is no need, that expenditure is not in vain. We have done it in the interest of our people,” he said.
Senate would visit the Gwagwalada centre, today, to ascertain the state of affairs.
Sun
