Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire today confirmed that the yet-to-be-identified Italian, who tested positive to coronavirus in Lagos, Nigeria, actually passed through the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos undetected.

He also revealed that it was because he was asymptomatic at the time of his arrival in Nigeria that was why he was not detected at the screening points at the airport.

Ehanire, who made these revelations during a press briefing today in Abuja, dismissed insinuations that the disease was not detected on time because of failure of screening at the entry point.

Osagie asserted that the Italian man was asymptomatic (disease was still at the incubation stage) at the time of entry.

“It is not that it is a failure of screening. The screening went very well. The information I have this very morning is that he is stable, so all people will not be equally severe.”

The Health Minister further disclosed that both the Federal and Lagos State Ministries of Health have decided to keep the Italian on a 14 days self-quarantine due to the fact that much information about the nature and pattern of the disease is still unknown.

He revealed that the Health Ministry will be taking the contact tracing for people who have been in contact with the unnamed Italian seriously and would be contacting those in the same flight as the Italian.