Americans denied entry into Cross River on isolation —NNPC

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), on Friday said the 31 American oil workers who were stopped from entering Cross River State on Monday have been placed on isolation.

The American, according to reports, came into the country on Monday in order to work for a partner of the NNPC in Cross River State, but were denied entry into the state by the state government, insisting that they should go back to Abuja and get properly tested for Coronavirus before coming into the state.

According to a statement by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the NNPC, Kennie Obateru, on arrival in Abuja, the oil workers were asked to undergo 14 days’ isolation, as a precautionary measure in the fight against the spread of coronavirus.

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

Read also: COVID-19: INEC deploys 100 vehicles in Abuja, Lagos, 4 others for contact tracing

“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, who outline what the corporation had done in the fight against the Coronavirus in the country, 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 said some of the equipment, which were handed to the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital in Gwagwalada, 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.

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