TOYIN ADEBAYO, ABUJA
The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire has revealed that the country has continue to record low positive cases of Covid-19 even as the number of samples tested has increased.
While adding that, with this cheering development, it will be presumptuous to conclude that the disease is reducing.
Ehanire gave this revelation on Thursday in Abuja at the Presidential Task Force briefing, adding that, this is because as of today, not many states are testing. We shall therefore ensure that testing continues in all the states until we reach our daily targets.
According to him; “Today, 10th of September, 2020, the total number of positive cases recorded in Nigeria is 55,632of a total of 433,206 samples tested. In the last 24 hours, we recorded 176 positive cases out of 2,494 samples tested.
“Ten percent of positive cases are children and adolescents with more than half of them in the age bracket of 10-18 years. It is therefore pertinent at this point to renew the warning of the PTF on the reopening of schools so as not to expose our children to the risk of infection.”
He further stated that ; “In my meeting with the Chief Medical directors and medical directors of the Federal Teaching Hospitals and Medical and Specialist hospitals last week, , I stressed the need for them to work in synergy with the state governments to ensure a coordinated response. The meeting also provided an opportunity for the Medical Directors to exchange notes and share experience.
“Important components on COVID19 response such as laboratory testing, home based care, psychosocial implications of covid19, challenges associated with covid19 case management (Isolation & treatment), were discussed.
“A critical and important outcome of the meeting was the resolve of the Medical Directors to complement the efforts of the state governments in the fight against the pandemic. They also stressed the need for continued routine services in order not to erode the gains we have made in other areas of health”, Ehanire explained.
The Minister added that, this was also underscored in my meeting with the Commissioners of Health on Tuesday, September 1, 2020. It is in this regard that a country wide deployments of community volunteers (CVs) to intensifazy contact tracing and active case finding supported by various partners is ongoing.
In the morning, I had the honour of addressing the meeting of the Northern Traditional Leaders Committee on PHC Delivery (NTLC) with the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19. I was happy to note that NPHCDA still enjoys the confidence and strong support of the Committee. The pivotal role traditional and religious leaders played in building community trust and acceptance of the oral polio vaccine was the game changer, we therefore hope to leverage upon on this advantage to halt community transmission of COVID-19, he noted.
