Covid-19 Updates for 8 April 2020’

Nigerian carrier, Airpeace Airlines, this evening touched down at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja, bearing A 15-member medical team from China with equipment and materials that a Chinese company says they will use to look after its staff.

However, at the Presidential Task Force briefing, the Minister of Health was absent and was said to have gone to welcome the Chinese team.

Reporters however did not see the Minister in the welcoming party at the airport, which included Chinese Ambassador, Dr Zhou Pingjian, executive director of China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), Mr Jacques Liao, and other senior Health and Foreign Ministry officials.

CCEC said in a statement on Tuesday that the personnel to be flown in are experts in infectious diseases, respiratory illness, intensive care, cardiology, neurology, general surgery and anesthesiology and will spend 30 days in the country.

Health care experts in Nigeria had made an issue of the planned importation of medical personnel from China with resident doctors, lab scientists and a trade union saying it was a bad idea.

The Minister of Health had however explained that it was a total package by a Chinese company as part of its donation to the war to curb the spread of the disease which originated from China, and not a special request for Chinese health officials by the government of Nigeria.

Liao’s statement on Tuesday sought to douse the local agitations, when he said that the visiting Chinese health professionals would be coming to carry out covid-19 tests on company workers nationwide.

He said the entourage will be bringing in a 16-ton cargo containing test kits, ventilators, disinfection machine, disposable medical masks, drugs, and other materials.