The federal government has strengthened surveillance at major international airports in Nigeria to guide against the outbreak of Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV) recently discovered in China.
Daily Trust learnt yesterday that the Minister of Health, Muhammad Ali Pate, had directed port health officers to begin to check arriving passengers for any symptom of the virus.
Our correspondent reports that the screening has commenced at the Murtala Muhammad International Airport (MMIA), Lagos and the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
However, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) is yet to issue a circular on it especially to airlines on the need to put in place necessary checks on the passengers.
But a source at the MMIA said, “There is no cause for alarm as the Port Health Service has been mandated to start screening the passengers and we are not taking anything to chance. The Port Health Officers are conducting the right check on passengers of foreign airlines as they arrive into the country.”
It would be recalled that during the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, Nigeria recorded its first confirmed case which was a 44-year-old Italian Citizen who had arrived in MMIA at about 10 pm on February 24, 2020, via a Turkish airline from Milan Italy.
When contacted yesterday on the actions being taken by the NCAA, the Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Michael Achimugu, promised to get back to us. He was yet to do so as of press time.
(Daily Trust)
