Four International Airports, 9 others considered as corridor routes for COVID-19, have been mapped for decontamination.

The Director of Education and Training of the Environmental Health Officers Council of Nigeria, Dr Baba Yakubu Muhammed , made these known during a special live broadcast programme of Voice of Nigeria on strategies to contain the further spread of Coronavirus pandemic in Nigeria said arrangements are on to disinfect and decontaminate about 125 Aircrafts that are National and International carriers.

Muhammed disclosed that the Federal Ministry of Environment in partnership with the Federal fire Service have concluded first stages of the decontamination exercise of 98 MDAs and presently disinfecting 150 federal government facilities in the nation’s capital.

He started that these areas are considered as places of high risk and corridor routes for COVID-19.

According to the Chief Health Officer, “the Ministry of Environment in partnership with the federal fire service launched this decontamination exercise , we are collaborating with the fire service because they have heavy equipment that are good in decontamination”

“In the first phase in Abuja, we have marked out 98 ministries, in the 2nd phase we have also mapped out 150 organisationa we intend to conclude the MDAs before the end of this week”

” The Minister of Environment in few days will issue certificates to the places that have been successfully disinfected , this means that these places are now safe for civil servants to carry out their official responsibilities”

we have also disinfected markets, some market places we consider as high risk corridor risk areas, we have also fumigated places like Asokoro, Maitama and major markets in Abuja”.

Muhammed assured Nigerians that the disinfectant chemical used for these areas are UN recommended and WHO approved ,which are been used for disinfection and decontamination of places .

“These chemical we used for the high risk areas are environmental friendly and they lose no risk to anybody” he added.

The Health Education Officer stressed that decontamination is the major strategy the goverment is deploying to contain the further spread.

Muhammed called on State Goverments to recruit more Environmental Health officers saying that these health officers are in the best Position to manage crowd and enforce social distancing.

According to him, “I want to advise state governments to recruit more Health officers ,this will give states opportunity to manage not only COVID 19, but other outbreaks that may likely come ,it is important for us to strengthen our Environmental Health services”.

He however disclosed that Environmental Health officers will by next week decontaminate Federal goverment facilities in Lagos and Kano States.

“We are not restricted to only government buildings but every area considered as high risk and COVID routes to the country” Muhammed added .