Abba Kyari, Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday morning tested positive for the deadly coronavirus (COVID-19) disease.
It was gathered that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) carried out a test on the president on Monday, and informed him of the result on Tuesday, following the test result of his Chief of Staff which turned out positive.
According to reports, Kyari traveled to Germany on Saturday, March 7, to meet with officials of Siemens in Munich on the Nigerian electricity expansion programme, where he spent a week before returning to the country on Saturday, March 14.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says Germany has recorded over 29,000 cases of the virus and nearly 120 deaths, with over 400 reported to have recovered.
ThisDay reports that Kyari attended a meeting the next day, March 15, after arriving Nigeria, where he and those in attendance discussed containing the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria.
It was at the meeting, Kyari was said to have started showing symptoms of COVID-19 when he coughed intermittently.
He then submitted himself for a test, which came out positive.
This is coming shortly after the Presidency in a letter signed by Kyari wrote to the leadership of National Assembly, asking that it directs its members who recently returned to the country from abroad to report themselves at the nearest test centre of NCDC.
Kyari noted in the letter that “airport screenings are our primary line of defense and refusal by any citizen to subject to these tests is a threat to our nation.”
So far, Nigeria has recorded 40 confirmed case of Coronavirus and one death.
Globally, the deadly virus has infected over 380,000 people and killed over 16,000 persons, according to John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre.
