The United States Government amidst its own Coronavirus woes has announced a 7 million dollars (about N2.6 billion) emergency health and humanitarian aid to Nigeria to combat the pandemic.
This is part of a 274 million dollars (N103 billion) assistance package to no fewer than 63 countries affected by the disease, according to a statement by the Department of States on Friday.
Nigeria’s share, the statement said, will go into funding of “risk communication, water and sanitation activities, infection prevention, and coordination’’.
“This assistance joins more than 5.2 billion dollars (N1.9 trillion) in U.S. health assistance and more than 8.1 billion dollars (N3trillion) in total assistance for Nigeria over the past 20 years,’’ it said.
As of Friday morning, Nigeria had 81 confirmed cases and one death from COVID-19, whose global infection and fatality figures stood at no fewer than half a million and 26,000 respectively.
The U.S. announcement came a day after President Muhammadu Buhari approved the release of a total of N15 billion to fight the spread of coronavirus in the country.
This includes a N10 billion grant to Lagos State, which has the highest number of 44 cases in the country, and N5 billion to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) as special intervention fund.
