Coronavirus: Nigeria budgets N620 million to battle respiratory ailment

The Nigerian government has budgeted N620 million to manage the coronavirus epidemic. This is according to the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire.

Tribune reports that the ministry of health budgeted the fund to monitor, detect and prevent the country from the dreaded coronavirus spreading across the world from China.

While interfacing with the senate on the level of national preparedness to manage coronavirus outbreak in the country, Ehanire disclosed that the health ministry has submitted a memo, proposing the release of the N620 million to take proactive measures to manage the virus.

Recall that the minister of health had on Tuesday, February 4, 2020, inspected an Isolation centre under construction at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital (UATH) in Gwagwalada, as part of the precautionary measures to prevent Nigeria from the coronavirus spread.

The first case of coronavirus, which is believed to have originated from bats, was recorded in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019.

According to CNN, the virus has killed more than 630 people on a global scale, majority of whom lived in China. More so, no fewer than 31,400 people across 25 countries and territories, have been infected by the disease so far.