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The Honourable Minister of
Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire has revealed that 60 Public Health Laboratories are
active in Nigeria, which together should be in a position to address testing
capacity challenges and to ramp up utilization if only the logistics could be
improved. He made this known at the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 Press
Briefing held on Monday, 27th July, 2020.
Dr. Ehanire revealed that
the COVID-19 cases in Nigeria crossed the 40.000 mark to 40,532 over the
weekend, with 555 new cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of
confirmed in Nigeria 262,579 of which 17,374 were successfully treated and
discharged, “We regrettably lost 858 person, most of them with co-morbidities,
he said.
The Minister informed that
the 70 to 30 male to female gender ratio and the case fatality rate of 2.1%
have not changed significantly but two thirds of all fatalities remain within
the age bracket of 50 years, while co-morbidities like diabetes, hypertension,
asthma, etc are common among fatalities. He added that there is need to protect
the elderly and the vulnerable from the infection, by giving special attention
to risk communication and priority for admission for observation and treatment.
He stressed that “We
continue to strive to improve the quality of services in our hospitals as more
persons are admitted to treatment, not only for COVID-19 infection, but also
for routine and essential care.”
The Honourable Minister also
added that it is our desire to reduce the fatality rates, and expand our
treatment capacity such that our health system is not overwhelmed. “In this
regards, the FMoH expects to take delivery of the newly completed Isolation
Centres at The University of Abuja Teaching Hospital Gwagwalada (UATH), AS
other centres are under construction nationwide.”
Speaking further, Dr.
Ehanire disclosed that the UN System in Nigeria has informed us of the arrival
of another consignment of essential COVID-19 related commodities, to be
officially handed over to the Federal government of Nigeria. “We remain
appreciative of the UN System for this gesture and their consistent support,
which greatly increases our reserves and recognizes our need, especially of
oxygen concentrators and PPEs, but also reassures our frontline health workers
that we are well stocked and can ensure availability of essential items and
consumables at point of use.”
The Minister seized the
opportunity of his briefing to officially introduce the Country Representative
of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Walter Kazadi Mulamo, who he said
assumed duty in Abuja some days ago, and wish him a successful tenure.
The Minister again,
expressed appreciation to all the frontline health workers, whose services have
helped to reduce the fatality rate and urge them to continue their work in line
with the global best practices in case management and to remain safe and take
no risks. “Coronavirus does not respect doctors or nurses”, he said.
In his usual manner, the
Minister reminded Nigerians not to forget the prescribed precautions and to
“reduce the risk of transmission even as we celebrate.” “Wear your face mask at
all times, especially when out of your home; wash your hand regularly; use sanitizers,
practise social distancing.” “I again remind everyone that controlling the
spread of COVID-19 is not the responsibility of Government alone, but of us
all, individually and collectively.
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