As Nigerians find ways to prevent themselves from the claws of the deadly Coronavirus (COVID-19), the Lagos State government has disclosed that hospitals in the state are receiving patients suffering from chloroquine poisoning. READ ALSO: Coronavirus: FG Increases Number Of High-Risk Countries
The Senior Special Assistant to Lagos governor on health, Oreoluwa Finnih, has thus urged the public to desist from using the anti-malaria drug as a measure of preventing coronavirus infection.
Chloroquine has been gaining traction on social media since some media outfits reported it had been approved for the COVID-19 pandemic.
The outlets cited U.S. President, Donald Trump, as making the claims, even though America’s Food Drugs Administration, FDA, since disclaimed the assertion, saying that the drug has not been cleared for any of such purpose.
This development is coming on the heels of the federal government’s travelling restriction to 15 countries, as part of measures to control the spread of the pandemic.
The affected countries include China, Italy, Iran, South Korea, Spain, Japan, France, Germany, United States of America, Norway, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria and Sweden. The measure, according to the government, will take effect on Saturday, March 21.
Nigeria joins a number of countries across the continent that have announced travel bans on countries with high coronavirus cases.
Meanwhile, the huge consumption of chloroquine has been attributed to panic among Nigerians who are determined not to contract the virus.
Recall that Nigeria, on Thursday, recorded four new cases of the virus. The first new positive case is the contact of the third case that came from the UK.
A female Nigerian, who returned from France via Istanbul on Turkish Airlines TK 1830 on March 14, was named as the second case.
The third case, it was gathered, is a Nigerian male, in his 50s. He was said not to have travelled anywhere but symptoms and test, however, showed that he had contracted the virus.
The fourth case, following findings, is a Nigerian male, who arrived in Nigeria on March 13 from Frankfurt via Lufthansa Flight number LH568.
The federal government has so far assured that further measures are on to arrest the spread of the virus in Nigeria.
