The Federal Government has called on health professionals in various states across the country to look out for unusual respiratory tract infectious cases, as it expressed concern that the COVID-19 cases are now transmitted at community level.
The government also called on various states across the federation to get ready with their health facilities as well as build the capacity of their healthcare personnel as the pandemic enters community level.
The National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force, Sani Aliyu, gave this directive on Wednesday while briefing newsmen on updates of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
“We visited Lagos yesterday and saw the isolation facilities. I would want to, on behalf of the Presidential Task team, call on the states to be ready by providing isolation facilities in case the numbers start going up in their respective states.
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Speaking further, he said: “We need to be absolutely ready and we also need to seize this opportunity to strengthen our health systems and overall health infrastructure and ensure that our manpower is adequate, while also ensuring that healthcare workers are trained and protected.”
On possibilities of insurance to both federal and state workers within the period of the pandemic, he said: “In this regard I would want to announce that the task force is working to ensure adequate health insurance is provided to all frontline health workers with the federal ministry of health.
“We would also be reaching out to states’ ministries of health to seek what sort of arrangement would be provided during the pandemic.
In this regard, we are also committed to protecting the health of our staff by ensuring that PPE is available to every healthcare worker as well as adequate training for our health workers.
Giving further insight on testing, he asked all healthcare institutions to look out for patients presenting unusual respiratory infections, especially if they are respiratory tract infections they cannot explain, because this is an important indicator now.
“Now, more and more of our cases are community-linked and we are having fewer and fewer cases that are linked to travel abroad. Our healthcare services need to look out for this,” he advised.
