The World Health Organisation (WHO) has commended the Nigerian government for measures taken to contain the spread of Coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, in the country.
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Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, gave the commendation in a post on Twitter on Saturday.
The head of the United Nations’ health agency also lauded the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) for publicly sharing the sequence of Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa’s index case of the virus, describing it as a momentous step to curb the spread of the virus.
The remarks by the WHO director-general was in response to an earlier tweet by the NCDC that Nigeria has published the first sub-Saharan African COVID-19 genome sequence.
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“Thank you @NCDCgov & the Government of #Nigeria for the swift & transparent way you have shared the #COVID19 sequence from the country’s first case. This a true act of solidarity and an important step in stopping the #coronavirus from spreading further,” Ghebreyesus tweeted.
The tweet elicited a response from Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, the NCDC Director-General, who thanked the WHO Chief for the commendation.
Ihekweazu, however, stated that the publication of the sequence was as a result of the collaboration by the NCDC, the Lagos State Ministry of Health, Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) and the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID).
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“Thank you @DrTedros for recognising the collaborative efforts of Nigeria – @ProfAkinAbayomi of @LSMOH, @LawalSalako of @nimrnigeria, Prof Omilabu of @LUTHofficial, @christian_happi of @acegid_lab and our #NCDCTeam.
“Still long journey ahead,” Ihekweazu tweeted.
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