25 Nigerian lawmakers have reportedly contracted the deadly coronavirus (COVID-19).
NewsOne Nigeria understands that the 25 Nigerian lawmakers that have reportedly tested positive for coronavirus include members of the Nigerian Senate and members of the House of Representatives.
A report monitored on a Nigerian online news platform, ALEDEH, quoted a reliable source to have said that 10 senators and 15 members of the House of Representatives are reportedly hospitalised in private hospitals after testing positive for coronavirus.
The report by the online newspaper added that some of the Nigerian lawmakers had arrived from London, the United Kingdom over the past week.
Meanwhile, NewsOne Nigeria reports that the claim by ALEDEH is coming after Abba Kyari, the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari raised an urgent public health alarm to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, informing him of the arrogance of some Nigerian lawmakers towards health officials.
In a letter to Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila on March 21, the President’s Chief of Staff said Nigeria’s Minister of Health had drawn his attention to repeated violation of screening procedure at the nation’s airports.
“As you are aware, these airport screenings are our primary line of defence and refusal by any citizen to subject to these tests is a threat to our nation,” the Chief of Staff wrote the Speaker of the nation’s House of Representatives.
In the letter which surfaced on social media Monday morning, Kyari admonished Gbajabiamila to immediately rein in the excesses of federal lawmakers and ask all those who have refused to submit to a medical test for coronavirus (COVID-19) to report themselves at the screening centres across the country. The letter did not specifically name the lawmakers that declined screening upon returning from a foreign trip.
In a related development, Lagos State, Nigeria’s commercial city, has recorded 3 new cases of Coronavirus in Nigeria.
NewsOne Nigeria reports that the Lagos State Ministry of Health confirmed three new cases of coronavirus in the state on Monday afternoon, March 23.
This burgeoning online news platform understands that the three new cases of Coronavirus in Lagos brings the number of cases in the southwest state to 25.
Giving an update on the spread of the disease in the state via its Twitter handle, Lagos State Ministry of Health said: “Three new #COVID19 cases confirmed in Lagos.
“The first case is a Ukrainian who arrived in Nigeria on March 15 via a vessel.
“The second case is a United Kingdom-based Nigerian, who arrived in the country on March via BA75.
“Third case a UK-based Nigerian, who arrived Lagos on March 13 via TK625,” the tweet added.