As confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country surpassed 20,000, the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, has warned Nigerians that this is not the time to let down guards but to restrategise on additional measures to keep control of the situation.
Doing this, according to Dr Ehanire, is not the sole responsibility of government, but of all citizens, individually and collectively.
The minister, who was speaking at the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 on Monday, also appealed to all health workers who have any form of grievances to report immediately to his office rather than embarking on agitation that would breach the response activities already put in place.
While giving the update on COVID-19 cases as 20, 244 as at Thursday evening, he said: “Confirmed COVID-19 cases in Nigeria surpassed the 20,000 mark over the weekend, reaching 20,244 between yesterday and today. We also saw the highest number of daily diagnosed new cases last Thursday of 745, but with 436 over the past 24 hours.
“While the overall trajectory was predicted as the course of events, explained both by increased community transmission and rising testing capacity, it is a reminder that we must not only, not let down our guards, but begin to restrategize on additional measures of keeping control of the situation.
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“This will not be the sole responsibility of government, but of all citizens, individually and collectively. It is also the prime feature of the National COVID-19 Response Action Plan of the Federal Ministry of Health, which tries to map a near, medium and long term health sector response strategy to the challenge, across all areas of health, over the next 3-year period.
“The Plan is to be presented at the National Council of Health and applied by States, for the development of state-specific Action Plans, to address State peculiarities.”
The minister called on all health workers to direct their grievances to the appropriate quarters rather than go on agitation.
Dr Ehanire said: “I will like to use this medium to appeal to all health workers who have any issue either with payment or with organisations to please scale it up to the necessary appropriate quarters, to the ministry for resolution because we can look into these things rather than create situation that may lead to breaching everything we are preaching.
“We are preaching social distancing, we are preach wearing masks and not gathering in crowd. But when you are carrying out a kind of agitation like that, it easily breaches those things.
“So, if you have any issue, please bring them up and we will deal with them in-house, and we will take care of whatever it is. That is why we are here.
“For this agitation, we wish to know about it first, you can write to us, you can visit us, you can call before it becomes misunderstood. The issue itself is something we shall look into. We will look into it to find out who exactly is involved, what the problem is and attend to it.”
He, also pointed out that those who chose to the home treatment themselves are not doing the right thing; warning that whoever chose home treatment must have a guidance.
The Director-General of NCDC, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, however, stated that there is no single state in Nigeria that is COVID-19 free.
Responding to a question that some states were discharging patients and declaring themselves COVID-19 free, the NCDC boss said; “no state, no single state in Nigeria is COVID-19 free, not one. No country in the world is COVID-19 free, even New Zealand, that is an island state is still having new cases after a period of not having any.
“We can’t separate ourselves from the rest of the country, we live in a country. So right now, no state is COVID-19 free. That is why we have to keep doing this work that we are doing, testing people, finding out if they have it. Even if you don’t have it, you can spread it, even if you are Asymptomatic you live with others that are more vulnerable.”
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