The National Economic Council (NEC) made up of governors of the 36 states of the federation Thursday agreed on the need for active collaboration with the federal government to fight the coronavirus threatening the lives of Nigerians.
NEC also agreed that state governments have also agreed to fund part of the urgently needed short and long term interventions aimed at containing the pandemic.
Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, said this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the monthly NEC meeting chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
“I briefed Governors on the risk that we face as a country and the need to pull together to respond to this.
“We agree that there was still a window of opportunity to respond aggressively, carry out certain measures and prevent; if we don’t succeed, at least slow down the spread of this epidemic across our country.
“We also agreed that this was a collective responsibility for all cadres of government and their Excellencies agreed to fund a series of urgently needed interventions, both short term interventions that are required for immediate response and medium to long term interventions that are needed to provide for the control of this and future outbreaks,” he said.
He listed the immediate interventions to include the expansion of laboratory network in more states and the expansion of treatment centres to at least one in each state among others.
He said NEC agreed to work together with the Federal Ministry of Health to share information and expertise so as to keep Nigeria safe and protect all citizens form the disease.
