The Federal Government of Nigeria has said N620m is needed to prevent an outbreak of coronavirus in the country.
The deadly coronavirus has moved beyond China into other countries and the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, appeared before the Senate Committee on health to brief the panel on what the ministry is doing to prevent an outbreak of coronavirus in Nigeria.
Enahire said the ministry submitted a memo proposing for the release of the sum of N620m to take proactive measures to prevent the spread of the virus.
He said the fund would come directly from the service-wide vote.
His appearance was sequel to a resolution of the red chamber based on a motion by Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, on the need to summon the minister over the issue.
He said Nigeria was prepared to ensure its health security which could disrupt economic stability if left unchecked.
The Minister was in the Senate in company with the Director, Port Health Services, Dr. Morenike Alex-Okoh, and the Director-General National Centre for Disease Control.
Enahire said already, N71m was released to the port health services for its operations.
Ehanire said the ministry had a multi-stakeholder meeting to deploy port health services there to screen all passengers.
He said the national intervention on containing the Lassa fever outbreak enjoyed timely release of N313m intervention fund from the Federal Government to manage the outbreak
Meanwhile, the Senate expressed concerns over the fact that screenings aren't taking place in the Chattered flight passengers wing of the local flights that arrived at the airports. The senators said such oversight could lead to the virus being imported into Nigeria.
As a result, the Senate ordered Ehanire to deploy health officials to the private tarmac and conduct screening of VIPs on chartered flights.
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