Federal Government says it is now considering allowing COVID-19 patients to be catered for at home as bed space becomes a challenge, particularly in Lagos, the epicentre of the disease in Nigeria.
Chikwe Ihekweazu, director-general, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), said at the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 on Thursday in Abuja that government was also struggling to make bed spaces available to some extent in Kano and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), but said the “biggest challenge is in Lagos, where bed spaces are really tight”.
There are about 3,500 bed spaces available for COVID-19 patients across the country, Ihekweazu said, but added that FG was working with Lagos State government to make more bed spaces available.
Due to this shortage, Ihekweazu said government was considering home care in Lagos State.
“We are struggling at the moment, ultimately we might have to change their strategy a little bit and start considering home care in certain circumstances, to provide a room where a patient can be managed sufficiently and, secondly, we are able to support the care by enabling health care workers come to that,” he said.
He further said the NCDC is scaling up testing for COVID-19 by deploying more health workers to go into communities to collect samples of cases that meet the case definition.
He said all health-care workers have now been trained to go in quietly not to attract a lot of attention, particularly in Lagos, FCT and Kano States with ongoing community transmission.
He urged every citizen within community to accept and give the healthcare workers the needed cooperation to enable them carry out their jobs.
The DG informed that response in Kano was improving, saying there are now two laboratories functioning and a third one would be activated by the weekend.
Ihekweazu also admitted that the proposed Infectious Diseases Control Bill which has received enormous pushback since it passed second reading in the House of Representatives on Tuesday still requires more consultation, if it must serve the purpose for which it’s being created.
He said passing such bill in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic is not advisable, but should be done carefully after the crisis, with wide consultations with stakeholders to draft a bill that will serve the country now and in the future.
Also speaking, Osagie Ehanire, minister of health, informed that the Federal Government has received an interim report on the mass deaths in Kano State and would soon make the details public.
Ehanire said already, a medical team and equipment including ambulances, thermometres, ventilators, personal protective equipment (PPE), among others had been deployed to Kano to provide emergency services in the state, while the full report on the Kano deaths was being awaited.
Boss Mustapha, chairman, Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and secretary to the government of the federation, confirmed that isolation and treatment centres with holding capacity for 274 persons have been established in Kano State.
Mustapha said the PTF on COVID-19, in the immediate, has further strengthened the state to scale up its response with the provision of necessary facilities and medical equipment to diminish the fight against the pandemic in the state.
He said the medical equipment released and transported to Kano to beef up the response include two oxygen concentration and three ventilators, 280 protective gowns, 51 face shields, 538 examination gloves, 25 boot covers, medical masks and surgical caps and IR thermometres.
“ I am confident that the above collaboration complemented by the lockdown directed by the president will be effective in slowing down the spread while we continue to test, detect, isolate, contact trace and manage cases. Also, the on-going investigation into the causes of the recently reported high number of deaths will be pursued to a logical conclusion,” Mustapha said.
To totally contain the situation in Kano, Ehanire said the Federal Ministry of Health is supporting Kano State COVID-19 Task Force with necessary material, training and human resources.
“The material and human resources include assembling and dispatching a technical team from FMoH and virus infectious disease specialists from Irrua Specialist Hospital to join a technical team from Lagos Ministry of Health that is already on ground in Kano at the request of H.E. the Governor of Kano State,” Ehanire said.
“The Ministerial Task Team sent on a fact-finding mission to Kano has sent an interim report, which provided information on the needs, strengths and weaknesses of the Kano response system. While I await a full report, this will guide the FMoH in supporting Kano State COVID-19 Task Force with necessary material, training and human resources,” he said.
The minister said there would therefore be a good pool of very experienced hands-on experts to support the leading role of Kano State in the response.
“An emergency medical team from FHoH has left Abuja with ambulances, five of which were kindly donated by FRSC, on their way to Kano to provide emergency response in view of movement restrictions arising from the lockdown,” he said.
Consequently, he urged all Kano citizens to observe safety guidelines so as to keep safe and prevent spread of the virus.
“I shall, as usual, ask citizens to adhere to advisories: stay home and do not travel anywhere, because there is no call for everyone to return to their village,” Ehanire said.
“Wear a mask or face covering if you must go out of your house and make sure to wash it every evening. Wash your hands regularly and practice respiratory hygiene. Remember social distancing, avoid crowds and inform those around you of these advisories,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Kano State government on Thursday denied the claim that it dumped COVID-19 infected Almajiri children on Kaduna, its next-door neighbour.
Sanusi M. Sa’id Kiru, Kano State commissioner for education, who doubles as the chairman of a special task force in charge of the Almajiri evacuation, told BusinessDay that none of the 155 Almajiri children the government evacuated to Kaduna was infected with COVID-19 because all of them were fully screened and well profiled before they were moved out of Kano State.
Kiru said the primary fact generated before the Almajiri kids were repatriated from Kano to their states of origin indicates that none of them was a carrier of the COVID-19 virus.
“We are surprised by what we are hearing from Kaduna government about the Almajiri kids evacuated to the state,” Kiru said on Thursday.
“It was yesterday that I received a WhatsApp message from the Kaduna State commissioner for religious affairs complaining that five of the Almajiri repatriated to the state tested positive to COVID-19. I then asked her to send me the forms containing detailed information of the five involved persons, and she only sent in those of three. The next thing we are hearing in the media was the issue of the 16 Almajiri kids,” he said.
Kiru said the issue was strange to him because the Almajiri children brought to them for repatriation were screened health-wise and documented.
“I have a copy of the entry forms here. I will show you a copy. Honestly, this issue strange to us,” he said.
He said it was possible for the children to later test positive when they got to Kaduna.
“This issue is very disheartening because the whole matter of Almajiri repatriation was started by the Kaduna State government, which first moved about 2,000 almajiri from the state to Kano without proper handing over to us. The 155 we evacuated to the state were properly screened, profiled and well documented before we handed them over,” he said.
