TheCable

President Muhammadu Buhari has set up a task force to work towards preventing the spread of coronavirus in the country.

The president took this step hours after Nigeria recorded a fresh case of the virus which broke out in Wuhan, China, in December.

At a press briefing on Monday, Osagie Ehanire, minister of health, had announced that one of the persons who had contact with the Italian who imported the disease to  Nigeria, had contracted coronavirus.

Nigeria currently has two cases of the disease.

In a statement, Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, said the task force was given six months to conclude its assignment.

“Given the current global outbreak of the novel Coronavirus and its potential of causing significant disruption to health services in the country as well as impacting negatively on the economy, President Muhammadu Buhari has established a Presidential Task Force for the Control of the Coronavirus-19 Disease (COVID-19),” the statement read.

“This action is in preparation for the unlikely but probable major outbreak of the disease in the country which will require a multi-sectoral inter-governmental approach as advised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) similar to that adopted for the HIV epidemic in the last two decades.”

Below are those on the committee:

• Boss Mustapha (SGF) – chair
• Sani Aliyu – national coordinator
• Osagie Ehanire, minister of health
• Rauf Aregbesola,  minister of interior
• Hadi Sirika, minister of aviation
• Sadiya Farook, minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social services
• Adamu Adamu, minister of education
• Lai Mohammed, minister of information
• Mohammed Abubakar,  minister of environment
• Yusuf Bichi director-general, State Services
• Chikwe Ihekwehazu, director-general, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control
•  WHO country representative