The Federal Government has begun contacting individuals who travelled with the patient who has tested positive to coronavirus (Covid-19) in Lagos.

Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, said this while answering questions from journalists on Friday in Abuja on measures put in place to prevent the spread.

Ehanire had earlier confirmed that an Italian who works in Nigeria and returned from Milan, Italy, to Lagos on Tuesday via Turkish Airlines had tested positive to the virus.

He assured Nigerians that the government was working to prevent the spread of the virus.

“I am assuring Nigerians that all measures have been taken to contain and control the spread of the virus, it happened in Lagos, the state Commissioner was the first we were in touch with,” he said.

“I know the capability of Lagos State. The state has a lot of experience on Ebola so they will be able to handle the case. Also, we have sent a team from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to support the state.

“The relief is that the patient is not showing very serious symptoms and other relief is that as far as statistics is concern, 97 per cent of the case that have COVID-19 do recover.

“The terrible thing about it is that it spreads easily and people can get it without knowing.”

According to him, the reported case is not as a result of failure to screen at the airports but the nature of the virus which may not present symptoms at that period of screening.

He commended the Lagos State Government for handling the case as the patient was quickly referred to a reference laboratory under controlled transportation and the driver was fully kitted.

The minister said the Federal Government had released N620 million to NCDC to contain the virus and N71 million to port health service.

“The government will follow the WHO guideline of screening at the airport, isolation and questioning those with travel history to countries with outbreak,” he said.

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