The Federal Government has trained over 3,800 health workers on infectious disease prevention and control as at April 5, Chikwe Ihekweazu, director-general, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), said.
About 270 workers were trained in each state of the federation, Ihekwoazu said while making his remarks during the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja on Wednesday.
He said the capacity of the health workers is not being built to respond to the Covid-19 outbreak alone but for the future after the pandemic is over.
The NCDC boss, while noting that healthcare workers are key to responding to the pandemic, said the centre has worked to ensure that they are equipped with the essential equipment to protect them from the infection.
After some medical associations kicked against government’s approach, the NCDC DG said government was working to engage all medical associations in the country, such as the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), among others, to ensure they are well integrated into Federal Government’s response plan to the pandemic.
The Federal Government has also called on health professionals in various states across the country to look out for unusual respiratory tract infectious cases, as it expressed further concern that the COVID-19 cases are now at community transmission level.
The government also called on various states to get ready with their health facilities as well as build the capacity of their healthcare personnel as the pandemic enters community level.
“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,” Sani Aliyu, national coordinator, Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, said on Wednesday while briefing newsmen.
“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,” he said.
On possibilities of insurance for both federal and state workers within the period of the pandemic, he said the task force was working to ensure adequate health insurance is provided to all health workers in the frontline working 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,” Aliyu said.
Meanwhile, Lagos State government on Wednesday announced the death of a 66-year-old Briton, making the third Covid-19-related death recorded in the state.
The state Ministry of Health, through its verified Twitter account, said the deceased travelled from India via Dubai to Lagos on March 17. The ministry, however, did not disclose further information about the medical history of the deceased patient.
The state has 130 confirmed cases – 93 active, 32 discharged, two evacuated, and three dead – as at 6:00pm on Wednesday.
On its part, Delta State, which recorded its first case of coronavirus Tuesday, said it has begun tracing all those that might have come in contact with the index case.
Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, who announced this in a broadcast in Asaba on Wednesday, also threatened to apply stricter measures to check disobedience of the state government’s directives on the lockdown in the state over the COVID-19 pandemic.
Okowa commended Deltans who had strictly adhered to the lockdown regulations from April 1, 2020, but warned that enabling laws would be applied on those disobeying the directives of sit-at-home.
He expressed appreciation to all Deltans and non-Deltans in the state for their cooperation, saying, “We are on Day 8 of the lockdown and I know that a lot of our people have been cooperating with the directive of the government. Unfortunately, a few persons have tended to disobey orders and I want to urge every Deltan that from today onwards until the 14 days, to please, for the sake of everyone, for the sake of humanity, obey the orders of government, otherwise they will be caught up by the arms of the law.”
