Director-General, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Dr Garba Abari, on Saturday explained that the Federal Government was not importing Chinese medical experts to directly take charge of the fight against COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
Recall that the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire recently announced that an 18-man team of Chinese medical experts would visit Nigeria to support the fight against coronavirus.
Clarifying misconceptions generated by the proposed visit on radio, Abari said the 18-man Chinese medical team were only coming to share experiences with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), considering that China has already fought the disease.
According to him, they will be sharing experiences on how the pandemic was handled in China and giving expert suggestions to our medical teams.
“Whatever information the Chinese medical team makes available to NCDC will be filtered and applied to address the peculiar challenges of the country on handling the COVID-19 scourge.
“This is a global pandemic and from wherever assistance comes, you cannot reject it.
“For instance, the United States is opening its doors to all volunteers that will come and assist them because they are also getting overwhelmed.
“Despite its fine medical facilities and expertise, the US is now saying any form of assistance coming from anywhere that will add value to the fight against COVID-19 is welcome.
“It is not as if the government of Nigeria is not appreciating the efforts of its medical experts. This is the time when Nigeria is proud and appreciating her own medical experts and showcasing her best.
“This is the time that Nigeria is mopping all its competent hands, both active and inactive, and bringing them together to ensure that we beef up competent human capacity required to address the issue at hand,” he said.
He, therefore, appealed to Nigerians who had shown symptoms of the virus, to quickly present themselves to NCDC for testing and proper medical attention to avoid endangering the lives of other people.
