COVID-19: IAEA donates €80,000 worth of medical equipment to Nigeria

Nigeria has received a donation of medical equipment and supplies worth €80,000 from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to assist in the fight against the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, disclosed this on Friday during the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 Pandemic in Abuja.

According to him, the Nigerian Permanent Representative at the United Nations (UN) secured the donation on behalf of the country.

Onyeama stated: “Our Permanent Representative to the UN has been able to secure from the International Atomic Energy Agency a donation of 80,000 Euros worth of medical equipment and supplies to assist in our Covid19 response.”

Onyeama said the Federal Government stands poised to evacuate Nigerians abroad who wish to return home as a result of the pandemic.

Towards this, he said, the ministry has already communicated with Nigerian missions abroad to ascertain how many Nigerians would indicate interest.

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He added: “We have sent communications to all our embassies and missions to ascertain if and how many Nigerians want to return home because of COVID19.

“As soon as we collate the numbers, we will start looking at evacuation modalities where necessary.”

In his remark at the media briefing, the Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, warned against Nigeria raising testing expectations beyond realistic limits, noting that Nigeria is limited by both finance and infrastructure.

While noting that the number of testing sites in Nigeria had increased, with one more to be added later on Friday, he stressed the need to balance speed and accuracy in the process of testing for COVID-19.

Ihekweazu added: “We must not raise testing expectations to unrealistic limits. We’re limited not just by funds or infrastructure; our biggest limitation is actually personnel, people who have already been trained in molecular diagnostics. You cannot train people overnight.

“One more testing lab has been added to Nigeria’s COVID-19 test network. The new laboratory is the Biosecurity Facility in Lagos State. So, Lagos now has 3 laboratories. Later today we will activate a laboratory in Abuja, and then Kano will be next.”

He also disclosed that Nigeria recorded its largest number of positive cases Thursday, saying, “we also tested our largest number of cases ever yesterday.”

Also speaking at the briefing the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, clarified that cargo flights will continue during the lockdown period, but they must front-load packing lists, adding that oil and gas industry operational flights, carrying personnel and equipment, are exempted from flight restrictions.

On his part, the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, revealed that about 3,000 samples have been tested for the disease in Nigeria out of which there are now 190 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Lagos state has 98 cases, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has 38; Osun, 20, and Oyo, eight cases. Akwa Ibom state has five cases; Ogun and Edo states have four each; Kaduna, four; Bauchi, three.

Enugu and Ekiti states have two cases each while Rivers and Benue states have recorded one each.

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE