A’Ibom Govt Commences Airport Screening Of Passengers

The Akwa Ibom State Gov¬ernment on Monday, mandated airlines operating in the state to adopt procedures that would ensure thorough screening of passengers against the dreaded corona virus upon arrival.

Speaking at a press confer¬ence in Uyo , Commissioner for Health, Dr. Dominic Ukpong assured that adequate measures have been put in place in the last seventy-two hours to check¬mate any circumstances that could lead to an outbreak of the disease in the state.

The Commissioner added that the Akwa Ibom State Government has ensured that facilities includ¬ing hospitals both private and public have been pro¬vided with protective equip¬ment and that volunteers have been put on the alert as well as the constitution of a task force that is on ground to take charge of any incident.

The Health Commissioner assured that isolation wards have been constructed in hospitals with an emer¬gency operations centre in Ikot Ekpene to cater for any case.

Ukpong said the state government has taken other pro-active mea¬sures to contain the challenge of the virus also known as Covid-19 in the case of any emergency situation in the state.

“I want to assure Akwa Ibom people that there is no need to panic because ade¬quate measures have been put in place to checkmate the challenge in the state; including contacting the major airlines operating in the state, briefing the management and staff on procedure that would be adopted in screening pas¬sengers upon arrival.

Ukpong said with the re¬ported case of the outbreak of the disease in Lagos, Nigeria was the third African country to record the epidemic.

“We have also met with the heads of churches through the Christian Association of Nigeria, Akwa Ibom State chapter to enlighten their con¬gregation and the need for the public to maintain a high de¬gree of hygiene through con¬tacts with persons,” he said.