The Federal Government has confirmed five new cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Nigeria.
The Minister of Health Osagie Ehanire confirmed the cases during a press briefing on Wednesday in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
He explained that three of the victims came from the United States of America including a mother and child while two others also from the US, an American who came via the nation’s land border.
Four cases are in Lagos and while one is from Ekiti.
That brings the country’s total number of patients with Covid-19 to eight.
Meanwhile Nigeria has placed a travel ban on people coming from 13 countries worst affected by the coronavirus outbreak in reaction to the five new cases.
Travellers from China, Italy, Iran, South Korea, Spain, Japan, France, Germany, the US, Norway, the UK, the Netherlands and Switzerland will not be able to come into Nigeria from Saturday 21 March.
Health Minister Osagie Ehanire said contact tracing for the new cases was ongoing. All the five had travelled to the UK and/or the US.
@Fmohnigeria has announced 5 new cases of #COVID19 in Nigeria bringing the total number confirmed cases in Nigeria to 8
All 5 cases had a travel history to the UK/USA
We urge Nigerians to remain calm as public health response activities are intensified across the country pic.twitter.com/yoKLHXoxhq
— NCDC (@NCDCgov) March 18, 2020
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) tweeted about the cases, urging Nigerians to remain calm:
@Fmohnigeria through NCDC will continue to provide accurate updates & take the necessary measures to protect the health of Nigerians
We ask that the public refrain from spreading false information while we all engage in proper hand & respiratory hygiene to #PreventCOVID19Spread pic.twitter.com/ETNkhXJZ9L
— NCDC (@NCDCgov) March 18, 2020
Nigerians have also been advised to cancel or postpone all non-essential travel to these countries, which all have reported more than 1,000 cases.
