Coronavirus: Nigeria ‘Very Short on Ventilators’

The President Muhammadu Buhari administration says Nigeria, which is “very short on ventilators”, is hoping to get support from other countries to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Till date, Africa’s most populous nation has confirmed 139 cases of COVID-19.

At a press conference in Abuja, Nigeria’s foreign affairs minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, said Nigeria the country was learning measures being used to combat COVID-19, and is also in touch with those that could assist with the tools it lacks to combat the infection.

“We are in touch with foreign countries and learning from them … we are also engaging countries on some equipment that we don’t have,” he said on Tuesday.

“As you know we are very short on ventilators. So we have engaged a lot of countries and we hoping to source some.

“But of course a lot of countries we are looking unto for assistance are also facing huge challenges themselves but nevertheless are cooperating with us.”

Onyeama also said that some countries which have been able to mange the pandemic were offering medical doctors.

“We also saw some situations where some countries also helped us in facilitating airlift to bring back some Nigerian resources to come and help in this fight,” he added.