The authorities at the State House, Abuja, on Wednesday commenced screening of staff and visitors as part of deliberate efforts to check possible spread of coronavirus.

AFNews has it that the measures adopted against the deadly virus by the State House included introduction of hand sanitisers at strategic positions at the presidential villa.

Some staff, who spoke with the press on the development, lauded the management of the State House for taking such hygiene precautions to guide against the spread of the virus.

Alhaji Kabiru Yusuf urged government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well as private organisations and establishments to emulate the State House by putting in place similar measures to check the influx of the virus.

Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, had on Feb. 27, confirmed the index case of COVID-19 coronavirus disease in Lagos, Lagos State.

Ehanire declared that the first established patient was an Italian who work in Nigeria and returned from Milan, Italy, to Lagos, Nigeria on Feb. 25, 2020.

Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), thereafter released a public health advisory on the COVID-19 to Nigerians, which included frequent washing of  hands with soap under running water or use of alcohol-based sanitisers when water was not available.

However, the recommendation of sanitisers as one of the measures that could reduce the risk of COVID-19 has brought about sudden increase in demand for the product across Nigeria.