Covid-19: China edges US, UK out of strategic position in Nigeria, sends medics to halt virus spread

A team of Chinese doctors, nurses and medical experts will be arriving in Nigeria in a few days to assist in the fight against COVID-19 as the pandemic approaches community transmission in Nigeria.

Health Minister Osagie Ehanire said this during a briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja on Friday.

“The global number has crossed one million mark, barely three months after the first cases were first reported in Wuhan, China. It is an indication that it is a public health challenge that we must not take lightly,” said Ehanire.

“We are already seeing what may be the indication of community transmission, in that 30 per cent of the cases–210– have incomplete epidemiological information. 51 per cent are imported cases and 19 per cent are through contacts of known cases.”

Ehanire said he has been notified of medical supplies from China by a group of Chinese companies working in Nigeria.

“Of great interest is that an 18-man team of medical experts from China, including doctors, nurses and medical experts shall come along with the flight to assist us,” he said

China was the country of origin of the novel virus that infected over one million people, killing more than 50,000 around the world. But the Asian country has weathered the storm, recording less than 4000 deaths and over 80,000 infected people, of which more than 90 percent have recovered.

Abuja is not the only one in need of help from the Red Dragon as Covid-19 threatens health and economies of countries across the world. Some countries in Europe don’t mind a hand from Asia.

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese President XI Jiping had a phone chat March 25 when Jiping told his counterpart his country is ready to reciprocate Germany’s kind gestures when Covid-19 initially rattled China.

“Chinese and German health experts have had video discussions on COVID-19 response, and an expert from Germany has visited China together with the WHO-China Joint Mission,” China’s foreign affairs ministry stated on its website.

The calamity Covid-19 brings to Africa has somehow altered the influence of the West and East in Nigeria, and Africa at large.

Nigeria’s traditional allies–the US and the UK–already have their plates full with the ravages of the pandemic. The US, for instance, now tops the chart of infection across the world.

Intervening in Africa is not on their laundry lists now.