JOHANNESBURG - The federal government of Nigeria has mapped out 125 aircraft and 13 airports across the country for decontamination as one of the measures to control the spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19) and other diseases, Daily Trust reported.
Speaking in Abuja on Wednesday at a briefing of the presidential task force on Covid-19, Minister of Environment Muhammad Mahmood said: "The aviation sector is such a specialised sector. We cannot rush things. I did say that we've mapped out 125 aircraft and 13 airports. So far, we've decontaminated and disinfected two aircraft."
Meanwhile, Health Minister Osagie Ehanire has urged citizens to follow the public health advisories on ways to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
"The increasing figure of confirmed cases underscores the ongoing community transmission, which is a major challenge and again necessitates a call on all citizens not to take this Covid-19 lightly, but to take ownership of the initiatives for non-pharmaceutical interventions with strict adherence to public health advisories: maintain social distance, practise hand and respiratory hygiene, avoid crowded places and wear your mask or a face covering when you leave your house," said Ehanire.
He added that another pressing need was to provide and prepare isolation centres and more beds across all states of the federation.
"As testing ramps up, the need will become more and more obvious. It should therefore be prioritised so that we are not taken by surprise."
He said the federal government team sent to Kano State has commenced work. They have been able to appraise the situation and start working on outlines of providing technical support to the state's Covid-19 task force.
The federal task force was dispatched to Kano recently following scores of mysterious deaths in the state, which communities fear could be attributed to the transmission of the coronavirus.
As of Wednesday, the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has recorded 196 new cases of the coronavirus, bringing the total number of reported cases to 1,728, including 307 recoveries and 51 deaths.