Ihekweazu, NCDC DG, just back from China quarantined

 

BY OUR EDITOR

Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, has gone into self-isolation for 14 days, in line with health safety procedure, having just returned from China trip.

This came on a day the House of Representatives suspended sitting for two weeks to screen and detect symptoms of the virus.

Also, as a Chinese who arrived Lagos aboard Ethiopian Airlines on Monday night, coughing profusely, was quarantined at Mainland Hospital Quarantine Centre, Yaba, though he was last night declared negative to the virus after a test.

Health Minister, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, who disclosed news of self-isolation by the NCDC boss in Abuja Tuesday, said Ihekweazu travelled to China to understudy the behavioural pattern of the Coronavirus disease, COVID-19, adding that he was being quarantined in his residence.

Ehanire, who briefed the Senate leadership on Nigeria’s state of preparedness to tackle the coronavirus crisis, said Ihekweazu, an infectious disease epidemiologist and public health physician, was quarantined on his return from China, in line with established safety procedures against the disease.

The NCDC boss had visited China at the request of the Chinese government to understudy and conduct research on the behavioural pattern of Coronavirus and was immediately quarantined as soon as he returned to the country.

“We were honoured that one of the scientists that WHO had chosen to go to China to study the disease was the D-G of NCDC. They were there for nine days, during which they carried out investigations. But we have already established rules here that anybody who has been to China will go to self-quarantine.

“Chikwe has gone (to China) and came back and has done the test. It’s negative, but we have insisted that he must undergo the 14 days of quarantine which is why he was not here today. He’s not allowed to come out until after 14 days, because if you make rules, you must also obey them, which is to set example for Nigerians that the head of NCDC is in self-quarantine as we speak. He is very well, but he has to follow the rules.”

READ: Ihekweazu confident Nigeria is capable of dealing with Coronavirus

Ehanire explained that there were already established Isolation centres in Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt to respond to any emergency.

According to him, these are in addition to scanners discreetly mounted at four international airports to capture body temperature without passengers being aware.

Also, Tuesday, the NCDC said that a cumulative total of 1,811 people had been screened for likely infection by Coronavirus, even as the agency hinted that the laboratory testing capacity for the disease had been expanded to five, with the addition of the Nigeria Institute of Medical Research.

According to the situation report by the agency, a total of 15 suspected cases have been identified across four states (Lagos, Ogun, FCT and Kano), out of which one was confirmed positive (the Italian index case) with no death.