The World Health Organisation has identified Abuja as well as Lagos, Kano, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Delta and Bayelsa States as top priority areas for preparedness against the Novel coronavirus outbreak in Nigeria.
WHO Technical Officer on Health Emergency Programme, Dhamari Naidoo, disclosed this at the weekend during a media training for reporters on the global coronavirus outbreak.
She said: “Nigeria was self-assessed as high in a risk assessment by the World Health Organisation, primarily because of the frequent travel between China and Nigeria.”
She said WHO was working on strengthening surveillance at ports of entry, and supporting temperature screening, and visual observation.
Naidoo said airlines had also been informed about travel forms to enable monitoring of travellers coming in from China.
She said WHO had deployed a surge team comprising experts from the Africa region to support the work of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and the Federal Ministry of Health in planning and preparing the country against the coronavirus outbreak.
