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Steve Agbota
Against the backdrop of the outbreak of the deadly Coronavirus disease, stakeholders in the maritime sector yesterday called on the Federal Government to establish mobile laboratories and health centres around the nation’s seaports and land borders to screeen people entering the ports.
This was even as they argued that the three laboratories located in Lagos, Abuja and Edo states respectively are inadequate to meet the needs of nation considering its population.
Nigeria importers have placed vessels from some Asian countries especially China, Japan, Thailand and South Korea and would need strict surveillance, on the disease which has already claimed several lives in some of the countries.
The deadly disease, which has crippled business activities in China and killed thousands of its citizens, will take a huge toll on the revenue of the government agencies mostly the Nigeria Customs Service, as most importation into Nigerian ports are from China.
Daily Sun learnt that the level of imports arriving Nigerian ports is gradually dropping while port calls to China are becoming less frequent, as fear of contacting the disease and a slowdown in the Chinese economy have deterred cruise liners, container ships, oil tankers and bulk carriers alike from stopping at the nation’s harbours.
Commercial vessels have stopped arriving, with port calls falling by an estimated 30 per cent in February, and container throughput estimated to decline by between 20 and 30 per cent, according to Clarksons, a shipping research company.
On steps taking to prevent the disease creeping in through the ports, the Port Health Services (PHS) through a statement already notified all port users, agencies and stakeholders about the outbreak of the Coronavirus.
“That any vessel coming to Nigeria through the above named countries must notify the Port Health Services 48 hours before arrival to forestall any outbreak of this virus in Nigeria,” the statement added.
Information gathered from the economists, indicated that Nigeria is already losing millions of dollars on a daily basis due to Coronavirus as the number of ships calling the ports from China has dropped drastically.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Tin Can Island Command has began a sensitisation campaign for officers and stakeholders on hygiene for prevention of coronavirus and other infections.
