The deadly disease, which broke out in the Asian nation sometime last month, has spread to eight countries including United States and Singapore, with over 800 people infected and 30 killed in the past few weeks.

Immigration and Port Health Services officials, said hundreds of the Chinese who left Nigeria for China to celebrate their annual festival – Lunar New Year – would start returning to Lagos, Abuja and other parts of the country from next week.

As such, they expressed fears of the possibility the Asians contracting the disease and bringing it into the country.

The immigration, port health and other airport officials, who spoke in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt international airports, were also worried that Nigerians who frequent the Nigeria-China routes for business might import the killer virus into the country if care was not taken.

Some officials of Port Health Services, a unit under the Ministry of Health, said the risk of importing the virus into Nigeria could not be completely ruled out since there was a window period of 10 days during which infected persons might not manifest any of the known symptoms of Coronavirus.

According to them, the thermal scanners installed at the airports are expected to alert them whenever any passenger with body heat exceeding 37 degrees passes under it.

The known symptoms of Coronavirus are fever, sneezing, difficulty in breathing and high temperature.

Although inbound passengers are physically monitored for any of these signs, Port Health Services officials said the virus incubation period might not make a carrier to manifest any of these signs, hence the possibility of missing out on some passengers.

A top official of the PHS said, “You know the way we do things in Nigeria, our own approach is always ‘fire brigade’. What we have here are what we were supplied during Ebola crisis by international donor agencies.

“My worry is that Monkeypox is also a problem in Nigeria. As of last month, we had 182 cases with nine confirmed death. Lagos State is even having the highest number with about 30 per cent. So my fear now is that on a daily basis we have Chinese coming into our country.

“Coronavirus broke out in December and people have been coming in. Some of them might have visited the cities where this virus is (in China) and they are already here in Nigeria. The scanners at the airports cannot capture them during the window period. The window period is about 10 days. During this period, our scanners may not detect any infected person because the symptoms are not there yet.”

A PHS official at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, said he was worried that health questionnaires were not being administered on China passengers.

He said this had increased the possibility of the disease coming into the country.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity said, “We have nose masks and kits here to protect ourselves. We also have sanitisers. My worry, however, is that there are no health questionnaires to administer on passengers from China. Even at Lagos airport where more Chinese passengers are recorded, there are no health questionnaires. The health questionnaires we have were designed for Ebola virus. We don’t take proactive actions in Nigeria until things happen and we will start running around.”

At the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, on Thursday and Friday, it was observed that health questionnaires were not administered on passengers arriving from China via Ethiopia Airlines, Emirates, Qatar Airways and Egypt Air, among others.

An immigration official at the MMIA feared Nigerian traders who frequent the Nigeria-China route could be infected by Coronavirus.

He said, “Chinese are not the only people to give us concern, we have Nigerians who travel to China for business. They return on Emirates, Qatar Airways, Egypt Air.”

A top Immigration official at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport noted that Chinese nationals would start coming back to the country in large numbers soon.

He said although the airport authority was collaborating with other health institutions to track those suspected to have contracted the virus at entry points, he was worried it might not be watertight, especially when Chinese who travelled start returning to the country.

He said, “FAAN is working together with other health authorities to track anyone suspected to have the virus. They have installed equipment that captures the temperature of all visitors entering the airport. For now, there are no threats. This is because the Chinese are not coming in large numbers; they travelled out in large numbers recently for their Lunar New Year holiday. But very soon, they will start coming in. You know that their New Year is different from ours. This is why we need to be more careful because the risk will be higher.”

Another PHS official at the Lagos airport noted that the country had yet to acquire the reagent to diagnose the virus.

The official said, “Even for monkeypox cases that we are recording in the country, we have to take the specimen abroad for confirmation test. We are just making noises here, we don’t have anything on the ground.

“For now, there is no designated place in any of our airports for quarantine. The centre in Yaba has quarantine; the airport is supposed to have but we don’t.”

The health official said basic health facilities problems at the airport had been there for a long time.

The official said, “As I am talking to you, we have only one doctor in Lagos and we run more than one shift. Abuja has a doctor and I think there is one in Kano. Lagos airport needs more than one doctor. Sometimes when we have emergency at the night, we will be running around. We may have to call a doctor from the state government (hospital).”

The official, who also emphasised the importance of the health questionnaires on inbound passengers, said, “Between the time the virus gets to somebody and the time the virus starts manifesting, there is no how thermal camera can detect that. The person will not even show any sign of the virus during the incubation period.

“This is where the health form is important. With that form, we can know the passengers who visited certain places in China in December. Even such passengers would be called later for us to monitor whether they are down or not. We also have health management’ form and we have health workers’ form.”

Also, a top official of FAAN at the Port Harcourt International Airport expressed fear that the disease could spread to Nigeria, calling on the Federal Government to make further measures to ensure that it did not spread to the country.

The source said, “There is fear; one cannot rule out that. But it is now left for the Federal Government to know what to do concerning this. There has been this sensitisation that if you have high temperature or you are feeling cold or feverish, go to hospital to assess the situation and see if it is Coronavirus or Lassa fever.

According to an AFP report, about 10 counties have confirmed cases of Coronavirus. Cases of the disease have been reported in Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and the United States as well as in the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau.

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The female passenger, Folswe Elizabeth Maria, on board Royal Air Maroc, from Morocco was on transit and was said to have taken ill at the transit area of the airport after using the toilet.

The case was immediately reported to officials of the Port Health Services who used the Infra-red Thermometre to test her and discovered that she had high temperature. The passenger was later taken to an isolation centre and kept under observation by Port Health officials.

It was further gathered that the woman had worked previously in two Ebola Virus Disease-prone countries of Guinea and Sierra Leone, thus fuelling suspicion that she could have contracted the disease.

“The passenger, who is from South Africa, came aboard Royal Air Maroc. She followed normal processes even at the Nigeria Immigration Service. She is a transit passenger and she was at the transit lounge where she went to drink and thereafter felt uneasy; went to the toilet and on coming back, she fell ill.

“The case was reported to the Port Health Service officials who immediately examined her,” said the source.

A statement signed by the Special Assistant on Media and Communications to the Minister of Health, Dan Nwomeh said that “The South African national suspected of showing symptoms of Ebola at the international airport (Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos) was quarantined at the isolation ward in Lagos while her case is being investigated”.

Meanwhile, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, has warned Nigerians not to fall prey to fake test kits for Ebola disease. Director-General of NAFDAC, Dr. Paul Orhii, who raised alarm over circulation of the fake test kits and sanitizers in the market, cautioned Nigerians to be careful.

Orhii gave the warning while briefing the media on his return, yesterday, from an emergency meeting summoned by World Health Organisation, WHO, for health authorities of member nations in Geneva to find lasting solution to Ebola virus and some vaccines clinically being evaluated with very high prospect of combating the disease.

He said that “Nigerians must be vigilant because some unscrupulous elements have started exploiting the Ebola virus scare to market counterfeit test kits and sanitary products.”

Orhii, however, expressed optimism that there was a great promise that some drugs and vaccines could be found soon to contain the virus.

“We have some Nigerian remedies that we are looking at very closely and after investigation, we hope that they will be able to help check the Ebola virus. So Nigerians do not need to panic,” he said.

He reiterated that Ebola virus was not a death sentence in Nigeria as, according to him, the Federal Government, through the efforts of the Federal Ministry of Health, had managed the situation effectively and halted the rampaging spread of the disease.

“Nigerians are full of commendation and appreciation to President Goodluck Jonathan and the Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu, for effectively containing the Ebola virus through prompt deployment of adequate funds, material resources and personnel to strategic places,” he said.

The NAFDAC boss further noted that Nigerians were proud of the current efforts of government, saying many countries were learning from the methods and strategies adopted by Nigeria to combat the Ebola menace.

He, therefore, appealed to Nigerians in Diaspora to feel free to visit home as the threat of the deadly disease had been effectively contained by the government.

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