MON, MARCH 09 2020-theG&BJournal- Nigeria’s Federal Government weekend confirmed making the 2nd approved payment of N620 million to bring the total payments made so far to health authorities to N984 million, as it battles to keep the country clear of COVID-19.
President Muhammadu Buhari commended the country’s health officials for their efforts so far in fighting the deadly disease.
‘’I am very pleased by how diligently Nigeria is responding to the situation, at all levels of government, and from the private sector,’’ the President said while receiving the Lagos State Governor Sanwo-olu who briefed him on the coronavirus situation.
As of Sunday, March 8 2020, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease control (NCDC) of the 23 suspected cases reported, 22 have come out negative and only is positive as at the 7th of March 2020. The NCDC says that as of March 7 there is no new confirmed case in Nigeria but the confirmed case is clinically stable at the designated treatment facility for COVID-19 at the infectious disease hospital (IDH), Yaba, Lagos.
A multi-sectoral national emergency operations centre (EOC) has been activated at level-3 and continues to coordinate the national response activities.
Globally, confirmed cases now total 110,034. Total death is 3,825 while 61, 977 have recovered from the infections, according to data from the John Hopkins University data base.
Italy, Europe’s epicentre of the disease has quarantined some 17 million people in an attempt to control the spread, including cities of Milan and Venice. Italy has more 7,000 confirmed cases. France on its own has banned gatherings of more than 1,000 people.
More countries are placing international flights on enhanced monitoring measures. Flights from countries such as China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia are now subjected to enhanced scrutiny by British aviation officials.
Meanwhile, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) now sees 2020 global revenue losses for the passenger business of between $63 billion (in a scenario where COVID-19 is contained in current markets with over 100 cases as of 2 March) and $113 billion (in a scenario with a broader spreading of COVID-19). No estimates are yet available for the impact on cargo operations.
10 African countries have reported cases, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). They are Algeria-20, Senegal-4. Togo, Morocco and Nigeria have one case each. Cameroon, Egypt and Tunisia have reported two cases respectively. South Africa has three confirmed cases.
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