BY TheCable
President Goodluck Jonathan has declared a national emergency to “control and contain” the Ebola virus in Nigeria, banning the movement of corpses from one community to the other as well as from outside the country.
He has also approved a special intervention plan and the immediate release of N1.9 billion for its implementation.
The full extent of the emergency and its implications were, however, not stated in the press statement by presidential spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati, which he issued on Friday evening.
But they are not expected to be as drastic as those adopted by Liberia, which declared an emergency on Wednesday and moved troops to check the movement of people from infected areas to other parts of the country.
Some other emergency measures listed in Abati’s statement are:
Jonathan, according to Abati, has directed the federal ministry of health to work in collaboration with the state ministries of health, the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and other relevant agencies to ensure that all possible steps are taken to effectively contain the threat of the Ebola virus “in line with international protocols and best practices”.
The special intervention plan is to “further strengthen on-going steps to contain the virus such as the establishment of additional isolation centres, case management, contact tracing, deployment of additional personnel, screening at borders, and the procurement of required items and facilities”, Abati said.
He said the effective implementation of the plan “will require other stakeholders to take certain precautionary steps that are supportive of the government’s initiative”.
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