The Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Health and its agencies, is developing a new action plan and strategy to respond to Covid-19 community transmission.
The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, disclosed this Tuesday in Abuja at the daily briefing of the Presidential Taskforce on Covid-19.
Ehanire said the ministry was creating a structured patients transportation plan within the new action plan which will be shared with all states, adding that this is important if the need arises to transport patients from one centre to another.
According to him, the ministry is also planning the National Council of Health to take in the preparations plans of the states as well as transmit and share its plans with them.
Ehanire stated that significant progress have been made in contact tracing with about 900 persons of interest most of whom have exceeded their 14 days of observation period.
“We have early evidence of community transmission already which call for the urgency of physical distancing, the use of face masks particularly where you know you cannot avoid contact, hand and respiratory hygiene.
“We are gathering more epidemiological information on coronavirus disease such as understanding sources of new cases and planning new lines of action. We shall continue to aggressively pursue our policy to detect, test and isolate cases.
“NCDC is doing a very good job supporting response activities in the states with new outbreaks with their rapid response teams and working with the department of the Federal Ministry of Health to oversee the establishment of more isolation and treatment centres in line with national guidelines and global best practices.
“We have increased daily testing capacity by activating more Covid-19 capable laboratories and shall work with the private sector to outsource and diversify sample collection sites and also improve logistics support. Details of sample collection will be made known in due course by the NCDC,” he said.
Ehanire added that the Federal Ministry of Health has mapped out areas of need in ICU capacity and will work with the Nigerian Medical Association, the Associations of Anaesthetists and Critical care physicians and nurses, with the aim of deploying specialists to areas of need in Nigeria, for limited periods, to enhance readiness and build capacity, while crash courses for locals are conducted.
“The treatment center accreditation team has set up guidelines for maintenance of operational standards that are to be used in all our isolation and treatment centres in public and eligible private health facilities. I remind practitioners to take utmost precautions as covid-19 is a highly transmissible disease with national security implications.
“The accreditation committee shall conduct random spot checks to ascertain the state of readiness of isolation and critical care centers. However, improving testing capacity will not yield full value if it is not followed up with stricter follow up with isolation,” he stated.
James Kwen, Abuja
