The Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF), has pledged the sum of N200million to support current effort of the Nigerian government towards curbing the spread of Corona Virus or Covid-19 in the country.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Aliko Dangote Foundation Ms. Zouera Youssoufou, made the pledge at a donor coordinating meeting in Abuja on Tuesday.
Youssoufou, who was represented by the Health and Nutrition Programme Officer of ADF, Maryam Shehu-Buhari, said the donation was part of the Foundation’s cardinal objective of partnering with governments at all levels against the dreaded disease in Nigeria and the rest of Africa.
A statement issued by APO Group on behalf of the Foundation, noted that the Dangote Foundation was the only Nigerian donor that attended the meeting and made monetary pledge.
Youssoufou said the Aliko Dangote Foundation has earmarked N124million that will support facilities to help prevent, assess and respond to health events at Point of Entry to ensure National Health Security.
Other areas of intervention, she pointed out include surveillance and epidemiology, where facilities worth N36million will be provided by the Foundation to support government’s effort and case management training of health workers which will receive N48million from ADF.
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Speaking at the meeting facilitated by World Bank, the Country Director represented by the Operations Manager Ms. Kathleen Whimp identified four thematic areas to tackling the spread of COVID 19. These are: Regular communication with the public, contact tracing, training of volunteers and international co-operations.
Also speaking, the Director, Health Emergency Preparedness and Response of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Dr. John Oladejo said some of the challenges, going forward include lack of enough isolation centres, contact tracing, training of volunteers, international cooperation, fake news and panic, among others.
Mr. Noel Chisaka of the Regional Disease Surveillance System Enhancement Project commended the Aliko Dangote Foundation for the contribution and encouraged others to join in the fight against Covid-19.
The statement disclosed that other donors invited to the meeting included: WHO, UNICEF, BMGF, RTSL, EU, USAID, US CDC, DFID, Public Health England, GIZ, JICA, Africa CDC, WAHO, PHI, MTN, Red Cross, IFRC and AFENET.
Latest reports say there are a total of 90,936 confirmed cases worldwide – although more than half of those (47,995) have already recovered. The biggest numbers are still by far in mainland China (80,151), followed by South Korea (4,812), Italy (2,036) and Iran (1,501). Japan has 274 confirmed cases, France 191, Germany 165, Spain 120, Singapore 108, US 106, and Hong Kong 100. There are also cases in South America, Africa and Australia.
The total death toll stands at 3,117 with 2,936 of those coming from China. The countries with the next highest numbers are Iran (66), Italy (52) and South Korea (29).There have also been deaths in Japan, the US, France, Australia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand.
