Nigeria’s Second Case of Coronavirus is Negative

• Nigeria’s Second Case of Coronavirus is Negative

Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, on Friday said the second confirmed case of Coronavirus has tested negative and will soon be discharged.

The patient, who was one of the 40 staff of Lafarge Cement that were isolated after been in contact with the index case in Ogun State, has now been cleared, according to the minister.

“This means that he has cleared the virus and will be allowed to go home,” the minister said.

While Ehanire explained that the index case, the Italian businessman, is stable. He said “As of today, 13th March, Nigeria has recorded still just two cases of covid-19 with no death, one case is now negative. The index case is clinically stable and is much improved, and will be discharged early next week.”

Responding to questions on possible travel ban after Donald Trump’s flight restrictions from the Euro-area, the minister, said the government does not need to take extreme measures at this time, that the country is safe as there is a lot of self-travel restrictions in Nigeria at the moment.

“There’s already a lot of self-restriction going on. There is a reduction in passenger movement, even without banning anybody. In our case, we have looked at the economic impact of all of these, as other countries are doing before taking decisions.

“The Federal Government has set up a committee to monitor the impact, to determine the benefits, costs and losses. As far as we are concerned, the risks we have here are very low and we are monitoring it very closely,” he said.

On the nation’s preparedness, the minister said “the situation decides measures and as for now, we don’t want to take measures that are excessive and incur costs that will go to waste, we want to take measures that are tailor-made. We don’t want to create over-capacity.”