Nigeria Intensifies Efforts to Prevent Spread of Coronavirus

(Bloomberg) --

Nigeria’s government intensified efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus after confirming the West African nation’s first case of the disease last week.

Measures being taken include increased screening at border entry points and a public awareness campaign on improved hygiene, Health Minister Osagie Enahire told reporters Monday in the capital, Abuja.

“Nigeria is doing everything to contain the virus,” he said.

Nigerian authorities last week identified an Italian man who traveled from Milan, Italy as sub-Saharan Africa’s first case of novel coronavirus. He’s been hospitalized in Lagos, the commercial capital, and the government is working on locating people who traveled with the patient, Enahire said.

So far, 38 of 156 people who traveled with the man on a Turkish Airlines flight on Feb. 25 have been identified and advised to place themselves in isolation, Enahire said.

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