In an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease in Plateau State, the state government said on Saturday, February 29th, 2020 that it had quarantined three Chinese citizens.

It said that the Chinese were quarantined in Wase town for a suspected case of the virus.

The state Commissioner for Information, Dan Manjang, disclosed this to Channels Television.

The report noted that the Chinese, who are workers in a mining site in Wase, flew into Abuja on Wednesday.

Manhang said,

The situation right now is that they have been isolated. The three of them came in through Abuja and once we heard that, the Commissioner for Health had to take a proactive measure to send a medical team to Wase to investigate.

The commissioner was also quoted to have said that the quarantined Chinese nationals made their way to Jos, the Plateau State capital, on Thursday, adding that they were being clinically examined by a medical expert deployed by the state Ministry of Health.

However, he said there was no confirmed case of the virus in the state, and that people should remain calm.

He said,

The problem that we have is that there is a tendency for people to think that investigation or quarantine, as the case may be, means that there is an outbreak of the virus.

As far as Plateau case is concerned, there has been no known case of this virus on the Plateau; we just took proactive measures to make sure that we place them (the Chinese nationals) under investigation and that will take 14 days.

The government, according to the commissioner, awaits the report of the team that was sent to Wase before taking the next step.

Also, five foreigners who arrived at Margaret Ekpo International Airport in Calabar, Cross River State, on Friday have been placed under observation following the detection of a carrier of the virus in Lagos.

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Beta Edu, on Saturday said,

We profiled five foreigners who came in from locations that have recorded the virus and they came in through Lagos that morning (Friday).

We got their biodata and asked them to self-isolate. And of course, we gave them the thermometer and got their contacts. We have been following up with them. None of them has shown any symptom so far. Two of the foreigners are from Europe, one from India and two from China.

She said sensitisation was being carried out and all entry points into the state were being manned by health workers to detect and prevent the spread of the virus in the state.

She added,

Our isolation centre is ready and protocols have been sent to all health workers.

Special protective equipment has been sent to all health workers, the army, paramilitary agencies and private practitioners across the state,

she said.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.