The federal government of Nigeria has disclosed the COVID-19 test results for members of the Chinese medical team who are in Nigeria to help efforts in containing the coronavirus pandemic.
The results were made public in Abuja by the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, during the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.
Naija News recalls the medical team from China arrived in Nigeria on Wednesday, 8th April and have only recently completed their compulsory 14-day quarantine.
Declaring the results of their tests, Ehanire confirmed that all members of the team tested negative to the coronavirus (COVID-19) infection.
According to the Minister; “As for the Chinese persons who came in, the test has been done after they were quarantined for 14 days. All of them were negative. After that, the Federal Ministry of Health is done with that particular case.”
He further explained that a committee of experts on national strategy and action plan headed by Professor Tomori will be sworn in soon and other members of the committee will be revealed at the swearing-in.
“The committee will advise on the national strategy and action plan, using lessons learned as we go along, and those learned from strategies in places across the globe. This will help us to identify and adopt the promising strategies and align our plans with best practices and advisories,” he said.
The Minister noted that frontline health workers should always use their personal protective equipment (PPE) when carrying out their duties.
“We have always warned that health workers must use their personal protective equipment.
“Secondly if you are not trained in infection prevention and control, COVID-19 is not for you as a health worker.
“It is very risky to underrate the infectiousness of this virus because it is not like any other sickness or viral infection that you know.
“That is why we have said only accredited isolation and treatment centres should be handling this infection.”