Nigeria ramps up response efforts to smash coronavirus

By Abu ‘Adnan

LAGOS, Nigeria (AA) - Nigeria has ratcheted up its efforts to contain the spread of new coronavirus, with the Healthy Ministry Wednesday confirming eight cases.

The cases included a 30-year-old Britain returnee and her six-week-old baby who have tested positive for coronavirus. No death has been recorded from the virus in the country.

Abuja responded to the spike by placing immediate ban on flights from countries of COVID-19 frontline -- including China, the U.S., the U.K., and 11 others which confirmed hundreds of cases.

The National Center for Disease Control said on Twitter Wednesday that the government suspended the visa issuance on arrival for travelers from these countries.

“All travelers returning from these countries prior to the restriction will be supervised in self-isolation, monitored by the National Center for Disease Control and Port Health Services," it said.

In the West African country with 36 states, at least 10 states -- including the commercial capital Lagos where the index case was recorded -- announced Wednesday night the closure of schools to stem the spread of the virus.

“As part of the preventive measures against the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, the Lagos State Government is closing down all public and private schools from Monday, 23rd March 2020,” Folashade Adefisayo, state commissioner for education, said late Wednesday.

She called the move “necessary against the pandemic” and urged the parents to ensure that their children practice social distancing while at home, wash their hands regularly or use hand sanitizers and observe high standards of personal hygiene.

“The closure is not intended to create panic but to prevent the spread of disease which has become a global threat,” Adefisayo said.

Meanwhile, no religious center with over 50 congregants will open for service in Lagos.

All the seven northwestern states and at least two in central Nigeria announced similar measures.

The country also ordered immediate closure of camps for the one-year mandatory National Youth Service Corps which is attended by hundreds of thousands of graduates who just concluded their studies in universities and polytechnics.

“Across the country (as of Wednesday), the orientation camps will be closed and Youth Corps will be paid and sent to their places of primary assignment,” Sunday Dare, minister of sports and youths development, said in a tweet on Wednesday.