Following the spread of the deadly Coronavirus otherwise known as Covid-19 in the country, the management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) says it would set up isolation centres for vessel crew who are sick or show symptoms of the virus.
This is as NPA said vessels coming from Asia have also been placed on red alert.
It said the authority was fully prepared to help the country combat the spread of the virus.
NPA disclosed this in a statement by its General Manager, Medical Services, Christy Akpa, during a stakeholders’ sensitisation programme organised by NPA in Lagos.
“I want to assure the whole nation that NPA is well prepared to handle any incident of suspected case on board any vessel that shows symptoms of coronavirus. We have already heightened our alert on ships that are coming from Iran, Taiwan, China or other countries that have been affected by this virus.
“We are making arrangement for isolation centres to hold the people that are sick while we bring in the state government that will isolate all and take them to the isolation centres with dedicated ambulances.
“When these ships berth, we don’t just leave them, we continue to monitor. It behoves on us that until the ship sail out of our territorial waters, it is mandatory that we continue to monitor to ensure that we fight this virus,” she said.
Akpa added that NPA was working and collaborating with Port Health Service officials to ensure that all the crew on board are made to fill the passengers’ declaration form to ascertain their health status.
“We are highly collaborating with the Port Health Services of the Federal Ministry of Health and the Lagos State Government through the Commissioner for Health”, she said.
Also speaking, General Manager, Corporate and Strategic Communications of NPA, Engr. Adams Jatto, reiterated NPA’s determination to combat the spread of the disease.
Jatto noted that the collaboration between NPA and port terminal operators would help forestall the spread of the virus at the nation’s gateways.
”We are aware that the virus is spreading round the world in a very rapid form and of course, there is need for us to curtail it. We have been informed that there is no cure for this disease and the best thing for us to do is to have a precautionary preventive measure for us to ensure that it does not spread.
“We know the port is one of the entry points into the country. That is why we deem it fit for us to discuss what we have done and what is expected of the terminal operators for them to be able to curtail this menace.
“We have had collaborative efforts with the operators for us to fight this disease and we have seen what they have done in terms of the necessary medical materials in place in each of the terminals.
“We have been told they have sanitisers as preventive measure for dockworkers who access the vessels and there are things they said we should do, which I believe the management will be able to take care of as regards the isolation centre”, he said.

Chinedu Wosu