By Victoria Ojeme
The World Health Organisation, WHO, has cautioned against stirring-up unhealthy fear in the populace over the outbreak of coronavirus in China.
The Director-General of the WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said China’s measures at containing the virus spread are not only protecting its people but also protecting the people of the world.
His words: “It’s important to not install too much fear into people and to have them lead a normal life as good as possible in these circumstances,” while calling for a rational approach to the management of the coronavirus.
According to SUN Saixiong, spokesperson of the Embassy of China in Nigeria: “On the Chinese mainland, the total number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus climbed to 11,791 as of midnight of 31st January, including 259 deaths and 243 who had recovered and been discharged from the hospital, according to the China’s National Health Commission,” Saixiong said.
Meanwhile, the Federal government of Nigeria has apprehended another Chinese supermarket, known as the Haopeng Hotel and Restaurant limited, in Jabi, Abuja 24 hours after it raided Panda Supermarket.
The government said its investigations showed that Panda Supermarket was “selling frozen imported seafood, animals like frogs and snakes under suspicious conditions with no packaging raising serious concerns, especially when origin is China because of coronavirus. Discriminating against Nigerian nationals in access to displays is also wrong.”
The Chief Executive of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, FCCPC, Babatunde Irukera, said what the Agency has done is to closedown Haopeng Hoel and Restaurant like it did with the Panda supermarket.
His words: “This another location of an ethnic restaurant and supermarket that restricts access, what you’ve seen here is we had uncooperative operatives and we had to force the place open, the entire building you see here the multiple stores and multiple floors and those stores have all kind of food items that are expired and what seems to be behind doors which is a makeshift, which is an additional construction that is completely concealed is the supermarket.
“And in that supermarket, you have all kinds of ethnic products also that are expired which are usually sold in wholesale as admitted by the operatives. Two Chinese restaurants who ultimately cook and serve this food to unsuspecting consumers and also other things in the freezer, seafood and meat items some of which were imported into Nigeria. Which we absolutely have no way of knowing the value chain or whether the food safety process was sufficiently complied with.”
Irukera reassured Nigerians that the heightened global sensitivity to coronavirus is obviously a subject of concern, and the agency has no reason to believe what they are finding here could be infected in any way or could be carriers of transmitting the coronavirus.
He described the act as an abundance of caution and to notify the other authorities in Nigeria, to take appropriate actions.
“We would continue to look at this not necessarily the Asian ethnic stores, we are looking at everything. Wherever we get credible information and wherever our surveillance people find something that is going wrong we go there and not just in Abuja.”
Irukera beckoned on Nigerians to report any suspicious restaurants, hotels that could possibly be carriers of Coronavirus as the most credible intelligence the agency has received are people who are reaching to them through anonymous channels, twitter, private messaging, telephone calls.
Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja, Ferdinand Nwonye said the Ministry calls on the Nigerian community to be more vigilant and abide by all public health announcements and instructions issued from time to time by various Chinese authorities to prevent themselves from the current scourge.
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