Health
By Benprince Ezeh
THE Presidential Steering Committee, PSC on COVID-19 has said that resources were shared among states, including the Federal Capital Territory, FCT to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation, SGF, and chairman, Presidential Steering Committee, PSC, on COVID-19, said that “Lagos was given N10 billion, Kano, N5 billion, and other states of the federation including the Federal Capital Territory received 1 billion each’.
Mustapha stated this at the summit to review the national response to the Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria themed: “The journey so far,” which held from December 6 to 7, in Abuja.
According to him, over 40,000 medical personnel were trained on infection prevention control among others. The “Number of medical personnel trained on infection, prevention and control 40,000; number of laboratories developed 156, number of oxygen plants approved and being funded for reactivation and/or development 38; these projects are ongoing. Total number of samples tested to date 3,580,510; total number of confirmed cases 214,662; total number of discharged cases 207,450; total number, of active cases 4,192; total number of fatalities 2,980; number of isolation centres developed under Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC 15; these are different from the states’ isolation centers.“
He said that the PTF/PSC has to date submitted two major reports to government, in December 2020 and March 2021, and the response remains a work in progress because COVID-19 has not abated.
“Despite the challenges, Nigeria, has so far been able to access 12 million doses of vaccines going into the third phase of the vaccine rollout,” the SGF said.
Mustapha who said that more is expected to be available by the end of February 2022, added that “the objective of the third phase of the vaccine rollout is to ramp up vaccination to 50 percent of the eligible population.”
Stating that the world was adopting vaccine mandates and was making it a prerequisite for admissions into some countries, he added that PSC was finding ways to navigate the challenges to vaccination.
“With the emergence of Omicron, Nigeria, like some other countries, has become a target of restrictive measures. This has to be only on a strong basis of science and data.
“Nigeria joins the World Health Organisation, WHO, and other countries in calling on countries of the world to implement risk-based international protocols that are in line with international health regulations whilst we are developing a new pandemic treaty that will avert this type of situation. Global health security is our collective responsibility irrespective of our economic status,” the SGF said.
Tags: Benprince Ezeh Boss Mustapha Covid-19
