United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday engaged President Muhammadu Buhari in a phone conversation.
Minister of Information Lai Mohammed, disclosed at the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.
The minister said Buhari used the opportunity to brief Trump on the steps that Nigeria is taking to contain the spread of the disease.
In his remarks, Trump assured that the U.S. stands in solidarity with Nigeria.
The American leader promised to send ventilators to support the country in its fight against the pandemic.
“President Trump also extends his best regards to the people of Nigeria”, Mohammed added.
Africa’s most populous nation has over 1,300 cases of coronavirus and has been trying to get ventilators for treatment.
Chikwe Ihekweazu, Director-General, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), had on Sunday raised an alarm about kits.
Ihekweazu tweeted: “Nigeria desperately looking for extraction kits as we expand #COVID19 testing.”
This attracted criticism as Nigerians reminded him of the claim that the country had enough resources to fight the virus.
He, however, explained that the tweet was to prevent shutting down of 15 laboratories for coronavirus.
Ihekweazu said: “I asked for extraction kits. These are not the same as test kits. We have a supply chain of all the commodities but there are supply chain challenges in things coming into the country now.
“This is the consequence of the situation we are in now and the global demands for the same thing. These are things that we had ordered for and they are in process of coming in but we suddenly ran out.”
Ihekweazu announced that people brought the extraction kits and that some even offered “to give them to us for free.”
