Nigeria verifies very first case of coronavirus

LAGOS/ABUJA (Reuters) – An Italian male who has actually been confirmed as Nigeria’s first coronavirus case after arriving from Milan was in the country for practically 2 complete days, traveling through Lagos and going to another state before being isolated.

The case is the first in sub-Saharan Africa. Authorities fear the infection might spread out rapidly in an area where health systems are currently overloaded with cases of malaria, measles, Ebola and other transmittable illness.

Lagos, with 20 million individuals, is the most significant city in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country. The West African nation, with a population of some 200 million people, has a lack of physicians and hospitals are frequently inadequately kept.

The Italian man works for cement company Lafarge Africa Plc ( WAPCO.LG) in the southwestern state of Ogun, the company stated in a statement. It stated it had actually recognized people who had “direct contact” with him before performing “seclusion, quarantine and disinfection protocol.”

The Ogun state guv, in a separate media instruction, stated 28 people had actually been placed in quarantine by the business the man worked for, although he did not discuss it by name.

The case has triggered a scramble by Nigerian authorities to attempt to “fulfill and observe” all guests who arrived on the very same flight as the guy and to recognize the locations he checked out prior to being hospitalized.

” We have started working to recognize all the contacts of the person since he entered Nigeria and even those who were with him on the aircraft,” Health Minister Osagie Ehanire informed reporters on Friday in the capital, Abuja.

The Italian, whose nation has been struck harder struck by the virus than any other in Europe, showed up on Feb. 24 on a Turkish Airlines flight that had a connection in Istanbul, said Lagos state commissioner for health, Akin Abayomi.

After investing the night in a hotel near the airport, he went on Feb. 25 to his workplace in neighboring Ogun state, and remained there till he established a fever and body pains on the afternoon of Feb. 26, Abayomi told a news conference.

He was then transferred to a high containment center in Yaba, Lagos state.

Ehanire stated the infection was verified on Feb. 27 by the Virology Lab of the Lagos University Teaching Health Center, which the man was now quarantined and doing well.

Turkish Airlines did not immediately talk about the case. There are no confirmed cases in Turkey.

Nigerian stocks fell 1.63%to their lowest level in 2 months on Friday following the announcement of the coronavirus case.

The spread of the new coronavirus from China has struck worldwide financial markets, and Nigeria’s economy is at threat from the tumbling price of oil, which represents 90%of its foreign exchange revenues.

The current World Health Organization figures indicate over 82,000 people have been contaminated, with over 2,700 deaths in China and 57 deaths in 46 other countries.

LABORATORY NETWORK

Officials from the Nigeria Centre for Illness Control (NCDC) are heading to Lagos to assist resolve the case, and have actually triggered its nationwide Emergency situation Operations Centre.

Global health company said they were working alongside their Nigerian counterparts.

Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) stated it touches with NCDC and is dealing with the WHO and other partners to support the Nigerian government’s response.

In a declaration it stated it had deployed one epidemiologist to Nigeria to support assessment and response to the outbreak, and has delivered 1,000 COVID-19 laboratory test packages to the nation.

And the WHO, which has said it currently has experts in Nigeria, has recognized Nigeria as one of 13 “high top priority” countries in Africa. Dr Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s emergencies program, told a Geneva news conference on Friday that Nigeria had “well-tested systems for harmful pathogens.”

He said Nigeria was able to make use of a lab network that had been established to deal with cases of Lassa fever, monkeypox and influenza.

Schools and workplaces in Lagos supplied hand sanitizer to people going into structures on Friday.

” There’s a run on providers at the moment for hand sanitizer and masks,” said Andrew Garza, chief running officer of Lifestores Health care, a Lagos-based health technology business that offers stock services to local pharmacies.

Garza said some stockists had actually sold out of hand sanitizer.