31 Americans heading for C’River now isolated – NNPC

The 31 American oil workers who were heading for Cross River State on Monday but were denied entry into the state have been placed on isolation, Saturday PUNCH reports.

It was gathered from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in Abuja that the Americans arrived in Nigeria on Monday and were to work for an NNPC partner in Cross River State.

They were, however, denied entry by the Cross River State Government and were turned back over coronavirus screening.

After the Air Peace charter flight that took them from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos was denied entry into Cross River, the oil workers who were billed to land in Calabar, were eventually flown to Abuja.

On arriving in Abuja, it was learnt that the oil workers were asked to undergo 14 days’ isolation, as a precautionary measure in the fight against the spread of coronavirus.

The Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Kennie Obateru, told our correspondent that although the foreigners had been placed on isolation, none of them had exhibited any symptoms of COVID-19.

Obateru stated that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control had tested the 31 Americans, adding that the NNPC would do what was best for the country in containing the spread of the virus.

“The 31 Americans are in Nigeria to work for one of our partners. They are being taken through the coronavirus precaution protocol of 14 days’ isolation even though none of them showed any sign when tested by the NCDC,” he said.

Obateru further said the NNPC had been making efforts to halt the spread of COVID-19, saying that aside from the N11bn donated for this purpose by the corporation and its partners, the oil firm recently handed over medical equipment to a hospital.

He outlined some of the equipment, which were handed to the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital in Gwagwalada, to include an oxygen generating plant, a brand new ambulance, six NNPC operational ambulance vehicles and two ventilators.

Others were a patient monitor, hospital beds, bedside cupboards, overtop tables, air conditioners, fully automated 5-part haematology analyser and semi-automated chemistry analyser.