Nigeria Intensifies Efforts to Prevent Spread of Coronavirus

(Bloomberg) --

© Bloomberg A member of the Nigerian army performs a temperature check on a visitor to Nigerian Army Hospital in Lagos, on Feb. 28.

Nigeria’s government intensified efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus after confirming the West African nation’s first case of the disease last week.

Measures being taken include increased screening at border entry points and a public awareness campaign on improved hygiene, Health Minister Osagie Enahire told reporters Monday in the capital, Abuja.

“Nigeria is doing everything to contain the virus,” he said.

Nigerian authorities last week identified an Italian man who traveled from Milan, Italy as sub-Saharan Africa’s first case of novel coronavirus. He’s been hospitalized in Lagos, the commercial capital, and the government is working on locating people who traveled with the patient, Enahire said.

© Bloomberg A member of the Nigerian army performs a temperature check on a visitor to Nigerian Army Hospital in Lagos, on Feb. 28.

So far, 38 of 156 people who traveled with the man on a Turkish Airlines flight on Feb. 25 have been identified and advised to place themselves in isolation, Enahire said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ruth Olurounbi in Abuja at rolurounbi4@bloomberg.net;Elisha Bala-Gbogbo in Abuja at ebalagbogbo@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net, Dulue Mbachu

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