FG raises alarm over Ebola resurgence

The Federal Government has alerted Nigerians to the fresh outbreak of the dreaded Ebola virus in some neighbouring nations.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Chairman, Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, raised the alarm at the PTF briefing in Abuja.

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He said the PTF was also enhancing surveillance at points of entry to respond to the recent outbreak of Ebola in neighbouring countries, especially Guinea and Congo.

“We shall keep a keen eye on it to avoid having to combat with the two deadly diseases at the same time.

“This is not a task for government alone but for all Nigerians and indeed all members of the public have a role to play,” Mustapha said.

He said as of Sunday, 1,753 people had died of the virus in Nigeria.

The COVID-19 index case in the country was recorded on February 27, 2020,

The SGF said as of Sunday, the country had 1,46,354 cases, 23,408 (16 percent) active cases, 121,193 (82.8 percent) discharged, 1,753 (1.2 percent) deaths; and 1,441,013 tests.”

He said in the last one year, the nation had experienced two waves of infections and recorded a lot of fatalities.

Additional vaccine allocation

The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, said Nigeria had been allocated additional 1.4 million doses of the approved Oxford- AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines.

He said Nigeria expected to receive an initial 16 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines through the Vaccines Global Assess Facility by the end of February.

According to him, the expected 1.4 million doses are part of seven million doses of the COVID-19 vaccines donated to Africa by MTN.

He said 500,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines would be delivered by the end of February; and the balance of 900,000 doses, by the end of March 2021.

Director-General, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Chikwe Ihekweazu, said Nigeria had recorded 29 cases of the deadlier B.1.1.7 COVID-19 strain, with results coming from different states.

He said to have more access to Nigerians, the centre had also activated a short code ‘6232’ to ensure all Nigerians have access to verified information on infectious diseases.

He said the PTF would roll out a verification platform from next week to check the originality of COVID-19 results from anywhere around the world.

PTF National Incident Manager, Dr Mukhtar Muhammad, said the PTF would impose tougher sanctions of violators of the COVID-19 protocols, especially the inbound foreign travelers into the country.

According to him, inbound passengers that have continued to flagrantly disobey COVID-19 protocols, will be apprehended, quarantined at their own expense.