Italian Infected With Coronavirus Had Earlier Been To Ogun State…. Official

The Italian confirmed to have been infected with Coronavirus had visited Ewekoro in Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State this week, Commissioner for Health, Tomi Coker said on Friday.

The commissioner also appealed to residents and visitors to the state not to panic adding that efforts are in place to get in touch with people that have had contact with the established index case.

Coker disclosed that the Italian visited a giant manufacturing company(name withheld) in Ewekoro community, adding that the facility so visited has since been quarantined in accordance with health safety standard.

The Commissioner, who abandoned her bed rest to attend to the public health emergency, while briefing the press, said the state has epidemiologists and Infectious Disease Consultant already handling the situation with support from the Lagos State Government and Federal Government.

She advised the public to wash their hands regularly, cover their mouth and nose while sneezing or coughing and to report to the nearest public health centre if they notice any sign of cold, cough and respiratory difficulty.

Recall that the Ministry of Health in Lagos State has confirmed its first case of the dreaded Coronavirus on Thursday.

“The case is an Italian citizen who entered Nigeria on the 25th of February from Milan, Italy for a brief business visit. He fell ill on the 26th February and was transfered to Lagos State Biosecurity Facilities for isolation and testing,” the Lagos State Ministry of Health also said in a statement.

“The patient is clinically stable, with no serious symptoms, and is being managed at the Infectious Disease Hospital (Mainland Hospital) in Yaba, Lagos.”

It is the third reported case of Coronavirus in Africa after Egypt and Algeria; the suspect in the former, a foreigner, later tested negative to the virus. In Algeria, an Italian who arrived Algiers on February 17 tested positive.

On Wednesday, the Lagos State government had announced that a Chinese national suspected to have the virus tested negative.

The Federal Ministry of Health has confirmed a coronavirus(Covid-19) case in Lagos State Nigeria.

The case which was confirmed on 27/02/2020 is the first case to be reported in Nigeria since the beginning of the outbreak in China in January 2020.

On Thursday, the deputy senate leader, Ajayi Borrowfice, lamented Nigeria’s poor preventive measures towards COVID-19.

Earlier, the World Health Organisation in preparation for an eventual importation of the disease had listed 13 Africa countries (Egypt, Algeria, South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Morocco, Sudan, Angola, Tanzania, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda and Tunisia) as having the highest ‘importation risk’.

These countries, according to WHO, are top priority for preparedness measures due to their direct links or high volume of travel to China.

The respiratory disease, which has killed over 2000 people, is capable of spreading through human-to-human contact, droplets carried through sneezing and coughing, and germs left on inanimate objects.

Symptoms of the disease can include a sore throat, runny nose, fever or pneumonia and can progress to multiple organ failure or death in some severe cases.