The Director General, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control NCDC, Chikwe Ihekweazu, said on Friday that a good number of Covid-19 patients in Nigeria are not in the health institutiosn and isolation centres because government is still struggling to increase bed space capacity across the country.
The DG said providing facilities and venue for hundreds of cases recorded in the country everyday is still a big challenge especially in Lagos, Kano and Zamfara states where the number of new cases are outweighing the capacity.
Ihekweazu said the problem will force government to consider other options which will be made known in a few days.
He added that as a result of the bed space challenge, government is finding it difficult to implement the policy on Institutional isolation of all cases to include; Asymptomatic, Symptomatic and sever cases.
“The policy is difficult to implement, yesterday we confirmed a 158 new cases in Lagos, it means that by today, if we are to follow that policy, Lagos has to find another new 158 bed spaces in a single day. And this evening, we will have another set, so this is the reality”, he said.
Ihekweazu noted that what is required is to increase the bed spaces capacity by 500 percent to respond to this outbreak using the current policy.
“So we are now considering other options over the next few days we will share this options, these are not options we would like to consider but they are options we are being forced into considering
“So, the reality at the moment is that a good number of all Coronavirus patients are not in the health institution, in isolation centres because we are struggling with capacity across the country
“I really emphasise with state governments, you don’t only provide bed capacity, you have to feed, provide security, build infrastructure so it’s not simple”, the DG said.
On test kits, Ihekweazu informed that Nigeria has about, 30,000 at the moment, but said “we have a supply chain that is established, you don’t buy and store these test kits, so we but as we need.”
He informed that government have planned for two million test kits that is already in the procurement process, to enable it meet the target to test two million Nigerians in three months.
The DG further informed that over 25,000 health workers have been trained across states in Nigeria since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Nigeria.
The DG said this earlier while giving a brief on response actions by the NCDC since the pandemic.
Ihekweazu said the centre has supported States to build their diagnostic capacity. He noted that at the beginning of the outbreak, there were only five laboratories in the country, but informed that two Laboratories was activated in Porthacout yesterday, bringing the number of labs in the country to atleast 20.
The DG recalled that at the end of 2019, the centre had already developed a new strategy callled Strengthening States for Health Security, and supported States set up a Public Health Emergency Operation Centres.
“We support states with rapid response team to build their capacity. Over the past two months our relationship with every state in Nigeria have been strengthened ” he said.
The DG further informed that the centre started a sample transportation system, through a private courier company that organised the transportation of every sample to all the reference laboratories in Nigeria, to help states focus on other aspects of the response.
“Since the beginning of the outbreak, we deployed our digital surveillance crew SORMAS, to learn no our lab, EOC and treatment centres all together in a single electronic web based data collection platform
“We continued sending PPEs to support states in their response and protect the health care workers in every state in Nigeria.We developed clinical and public health guidance,” Ihekweazu added.
He however noted that while the Centre support states, it also encourages then to take ownership of the response
“The reason NCDC was set up was to strengthen health security at the state level we will continue doing this until every state is stronger to protect its own internal health security while we support.”
