Federal Government has announced the disbursement of N315 million to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to strengthen preparedness for the Covid-19 (Coronavirus).
The sum of N71 million was initially disbursed by the Federal Government to scale up interventions at port health services, making it a total of N386 million disbursed so far.
The permanent secretary, Ministry of Health, Abdullahi Abdullaziz, who confirmed this at a press conference weekend in Abuja, said the total amount disbursed was part of the N620 million requested by the health minister.
The minister of state for health, Olurunnimbe Mamora, while giving an update on Nigeria’s level of preparedness, said all five suspected cases of Coronavirus in Nigeria tested negative and there was currently no confirmed case in Africa.
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The minister informed that the Inter-ministerial and multi-sectoral committees were working with the NCDC and meet twice a week or more to strengthen preparedness and response activities.
He also informed that Nigeria was receiving technical support from the World Health Organisation (WHO), the African Centre for Disease Control and some other relevant health organisations towards the same cause.
He said as, on Friday, there were a total of 75,748 confirmed cases with 2,129 deaths and a mortality rate of 2.4 percent.
While giving an update on the strange killer disease detected in Benue State, the minister said a preliminary investigation indicated that it was lead poisoning but said investigations were still ongoing.
Also giving an update on Lassa fever, which has claimed at least 103 lives, the minister said a national response rapid team had been deployed to nine states – Ondo, Edo, Ebonyi, Enugu, Kaduna, Taraba, Delta, Kano, and Borno.
He, however, noted that the primary health care centres need to be strengthened, but urged the public to maintain good environmental hygiene and avoid fake news.
