… as 15 medical experts arrive Nigeria to fight to pandemic
By Joyce Remi- Babayeju
The Federal Government has received medical equipment and consumables worth $1,3000,000 from Chinese companies in Nigeria as the much awaited 15 Chinese medical experts arrive Nigeria today.
In addition to providing their expertise, the donation provides medical supplies to augment the efforts
of the government towards containing the COVID-19 outbreak in Nigeria.
In a press release from the Ministry of Health signed by the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire and made available to Daybreak today, said the Chinese
medical team are not here to treat patients but to conduct capacity building based on their experience.
The delegation of 15 Chinese medical experts is composed of doctors, nurses and laboratory technicians who will help strengthen testing and management of COVID-19 cases, especially those needing critical care in Nigeria.
According to the Ministry, as of April 8th, Nigeria has recorded 276 cases across several states with
6 deaths and discharged 44 cases.
The statement read, “the mission will strengthen our response in Nigeria based on lessons from
the response in China. The Chinese medical team will provide first-hand experience and insights on how they were able to bring the spread of the disease under control.
The donors, a group of Chinese companies working in Nigeria, made this gesture in a show of solidarity and cooperation with the Nigerian government.
The donation worth $ 1,300, 0000 includes medical equipment and consumables, personal protective equipment (PPE) with over 1 million medical masks for health workers, and ventilators, amongst
other items.
These resources will support the ongoing efforts of our hard-working and
resourceful health workers across the country, including doctors and
nurses, who have been at the forefront of fighting the coronavirus disease. The PPE will also serve to protect these frontline workers and mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in the line of duty.
The ministry aprecciated the| Chinese gesture and promised to collaborate with the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration, NAFDAC to ensure to
the quality of all the medical supplies that were brought into the country conforms to global best practices, adding the medical experts from China have gone into
isolation for 14 days and will be tested for COVID-19.
The Federal Ministry of Health said that it will further ensure proper distribution of the donations and strategic engagement with the medical team from
China, to work with Nigerian medical experts.
