The Minister of State for Health, Dr. Olorunnibe Mamora has hinted that Nigeria have crossed the 100,000 mark for confirmed cases of COVID-19, an evidence of increasing infection.
He also said that, about 100,087 cases have been confirmed while 80,030 cases have been discharged since this Pandemic began.
Mamora gave this hint at the Presidential Task force on COVID-19 yesterday in Abuja, while adding that they have also sadly recorded 1,358 deaths in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
Saying, in the last 24 hours, 1,024 new confirmed cases were recorded in 17 states with 8 deaths. The case fatality rate stands at 1.36%.
Mamora stated that, “So far, we have tested a total of 1,025,560 people with a positivity rate of 9.8%. Our testing rate in the last few weeks has increased as we continue to engage states to scale up their case finding and testing. We are working to meet our target of testing 2 million Nigerians within the shortest period.
“The result from the tests conducted on prospective NYSC members has incontrovertibly confirmed that no part of the country is free of COVID-19 disease. We safely and comfortably draw this conclusion because corps members are mobilized from all the states of the country for each of the orientation camps.
“With the increased number of confirmed cases, the number of active cases has increased. As of today, we have 18,699 active cases on treatment both in facility and in the community using the treatment protocols. Many of the active cases may require care in one of the treatment or isolation centres thus imposing enormous burden on our facilities.
He continued; “The report that many of those who died, reported late for treatment at the approved centres because they were referred late from private facilities is alarming. We therefore once again seize this opportunity to urge health care practitioners to promptly send all suspected cases for testing and when positive, refer them to isolation centres for treatment. Attempting to treat suspected or confirmed cases not only exposes the health workers in such a facility to risk of infection but also denies the patient early access to effective treatment in an approved treatment centre”.
The Minister further hinted that, the plan of the Federal Government regarding activation of oxygen availability in the States is on course with a view to effecting immediate repairs of non-functional oxygen plants.
He added that, the weekly Case Management Partners Coordination forum for 2021 is set to recommence on Wednesday 13th January, 2021. This is an avenue for continuous interface with different actors in case management towards engendering experience sharing.
He, however, reminded Nigerians , that COVID-19 is real but preventable. While we await the vaccines, we are enjoined to observe all non-pharmaceutical measures. Wear your face masks appropriately especially when out of your house, wash your hands with soap and water regularly or use hand sanitizer where necessary and avoid unnecessary travels.
He added that there is the need to avoid crowding as we see in people under the guise of National Identity Number Enrollment. There is absolutely no cause for this, if only people would voluntarily comply with advisories and guidelines as issued by the Ministry of Communications and its relevant Agency.
The statement credited to me on the social media as to the suspension of the exercise is out of context, hence misleading. For the
avoidance of doubt, Mr President’s order on the matter remains as being carried out by the relevant Ministry.
