The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has aborted its earlier plans to create isolation center at the ports as a way of preventing the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Recall that NPA during a recent sensitization programme for terminal operators and other critical stakeholders in the industry on Covid-19 had said the organization will soon set up an isolation center at the port as preventive measure against the spread of the dreaded novel Coronavirus.
The General Manager Medical Services of the NPA, Christy Akpa had said the agency is at alert and was already making arrangement for creation of an isolation centre to hold people that are sick on board in-coming vessels.
However, two weeks after the idea of setting up an isolation centre was announced, the NPA last week said it has backed out of the proposal, it said the isolation center is no longer needed.
Speaking exclusively to Shipping Position Daily correspondent, the General Manager Corporate and Strategic Communications NPA, Adams Jatto disclosed that the agency decided to jettison the creation of the isolation center after the National Center for Disease Control advised against it.
According to NPA, the NCDC advised that, as soon as any issue regarding the virus is suspected on board ship or at the port, the National Center for Disease Control should be called immediately for evacuation.
“We had issues along the line, we had a discussion with the port unit and the National Centre for Disease Control, and they are of the view that we don’t have to have multiple centers, but as soon as we have any issue detected, they should be called immediately for evacuation. So there is no need for isolation. Once we enter any ship and we discover anything, that ship will be quarantined and the state government will intervene”, he said.
Presently the total figures of corona virus patients in Nigeria as at the time of filling this report has risen to 12 after four new cases were confirmed in Lagos State last Thursday.
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