TOYIN ADEBAYO, ABUJA
Dr Osagie Ehanire, the Minister of Health on Thursday revealed that over 70% of all Covid-19 tests conducted have been in 9 states including Lagos, Kano, FCT, Plateau, Oyo, Kaduna, Edo Ogun Rivers with 25% of the tests in Lagos alone.
He added that, the Government of the federation will continue to work with state governments to ramp up case findings and sample collection activities.
Ehanire made this known at the Presidential Task Force briefing on Covid-19 , saying, our target remains to test 1% of our population across the country.
His words; ” This pandemic has had its impact on our young people. As at yesterday, 46% of positive cases in the country are young people between ages 21-40.
He, however , appealed to youths to take responsibility. Let us ensure that we adhere to the advisories to wear face masks appropriately, regularly wash your hands and ensure respiratory hygiene.
“Nigeria joined the rest of the world to celebrate this years United Nations’ International Youth Day with the theme “Youth Engagement for Global Action” which seeks to highlight the ways in which the engagement of young people at the local, national and global levels is enriching national and multilateral institutions. It was also an opportunity to take stock of the contributions of young people to national development. It was also a day to reflect on the contributions of young people to our response plan. I wish to commend some our youths who have supported community mobilization and risk communication through the social media and community engagement”.
He further stated ,they are concerned by the resurgence of infection in healthcare workers. In a bid to sustain the gains we have made in reducing the rate of infection among our health workers, we have made training and retraining of health workers on infection prevention and control.
In Abia State, we have concluded the training of 594 Healthcare Workers from private and public health facilities on infection prevention and control. We are currently investigating healthcare associated infection in a health facility in Kaduna State. Lessons learnt from this will be used to improve service delivery. I encourage our health workers not to drop their guards as the pandemic is still with us. Use your PPEs appropriately and judiciously. We have ensured that PPEs are available in all our health facilities.
He added that, as of 13th August, 2020, we have recorded 47,743 cases from 338,084 samples tested so far, while 33,943 persons have been treated and discharged. Sadly, 956 persons have been lost to the COVID-19 infection.
