President Muhammadu Buhari has set up a task force to work towards preventing the spread of coronavirus in the country.
The president took this step hours after Nigeria recorded a fresh case of the virus which broke out in Wuhan, China, in December.
At a press briefing on Monday, Osagie Ehanire, minister of health, had announced that one of the persons who had contact with the Italian who imported the disease to Nigeria, had contracted coronavirus.
Nigeria currently has two cases of the disease.
In a statement, Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, said the task force was given six months to conclude its assignment.
“Given the current global outbreak of the novel Coronavirus and its potential of causing significant disruption to health services in the country as well as impacting negatively on the economy, President Muhammadu Buhari has established a Presidential Task Force for the Control of the Coronavirus-19 Disease (COVID-19),” the statement read.
“This action is in preparation for the unlikely but probable major outbreak of the disease in the country which will require a multi-sectoral inter-governmental approach as advised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) similar to that adopted for the HIV epidemic in the last two decades.”
Below are those on the committee:
Boss Mustapha (SGF) – chair
Sani Aliyu – national coordinator
Osagie Ehanire, minister of health
Rauf Aregbesola, minister of interior
Hadi Sirika, minister of aviation
Sadiya Farook, minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social services
Adamu Adamu, minister of education
Lai Mohammed, minister of information
Mohammed Abubakar, minister of environment
Yusuf Bichi director-general, State Services
Chikwe Ihekwehazu, director-general, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control
WHO country representative
TheCable