Isolation centres for potential patients suffering from the coronavirus disease are not ready in the Federal Capital Territory and some states such as Kano, Rivers and Ogun, The PUNCH’s investigations have revealed.
Our correspondents’ findings in the FCT and the states showed that while some of the centres were still under construction, others lacked necessary equipment for patients and medical personnel that would work in the centres.
It was also gathered that the Federal Government had posted more medical personnel to international airports to assist in the screening of passengers.
Nigeria recorded its first coronavirus case on Thursday when an Italian businessman, who was on a visit to Lafarge Africa Plc, Ewekoro, Ogun State, was diagnosed with the disease.
The Italian, who arrived in Lagos on Monday aboard a Turkish Airlines flight, was said to have spent the night in a hotel around the airport before he was driven in a Lafarge vehicle to Ewekoro on Tuesday morning.
When he fell ill on Wednesday, he went to the company clinic, where he tested negative for malaria and he was subsequently referred to Lagos, where he tested positive to coronavirus.
The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, had on Saturday said the Italian was clinically stable.
Both the Lagos and Ogun state governments have identified no fewer than 100 people who had contact with the index case. At least 39 of them are being quarantined in Ogun State.