Edo Ministry of Health says an emergency operation centre in Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital has been activated for treatment of both coronavirus and lassa fever cases.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr Patrick Okundia, said at a news conference on Friday in Benin that the state government had delegated a team of health officials to enquire about the flight manifest that brought the Italian infected with coronavirus to the country.
He said that a team had been sent to the airport to get information on list of passengers and crew members on board the flight that brought the Italian into the country.
Okundia added that surveillance officers had been placed on red alert to carry out active case search in all health facilities and points of entries into the state.
According to him, the state’s Ministry of Health has commenced sensitisation of staff of Benin Airport on screening modalities of air travellers.
He said “there is ongoing awareness creation and sensitisation of the public on the novel coronavirus in various news media. Sensitisation of healthcare workers across the health facilities in the 18 local government areas has also started,”
The commissioner said that the Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (ISTH), Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) and Nigeria Centre for Disease Control’s National Reference Laboratory in Abuja have the coronavirus testing machines.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that an Italian, who boarded a Turkish airline, has been confirmed positive with the coronavirus by the Virology Laboratory of LUTH, the first reported case in Nigeria since the outbreak in China.