Health Minister Blames Community Transmission For Rising COVID-19 Cases
BY VICTOR OSOWOCHI, ABUJA – The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, says only coordinated and sustained efforts involving the Federal Government, all stakeholders and the citizenry will effectively contain the rising cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country.
Ehanire said this has become imperative against the backdrop of “very strong ongoing community transmission” being recorded nationwide.
Speaking at the Presidential Task Force (PTF) daily briefing on COVID-19 in Abuja on Wednesday. Ehanire also admitted that Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC)’s efforts at carrying out more tests will certainly throw up a spike in reported positive COVID-19 cases.
He however insisted that effective collaboration of stakeholders at all levels as well as strict compliance by citizens to health advisories will greatly aid the country’s efforts at successfully tackling and checking the spread of the rampaging virus
According to the Minister; “Concerning the increased number of cases, there is the notion that community transmission is going on very strongly and therefore, increasing the cases of those infected with COVID-19.
“It is also due to the improvement in testing and case finding. There is a renewed effort to do more aggressive testing by the NCDC – house-to-house testing and following any clusters that are of interest to increase the testing and to get more cases.”
He said as part efforts to step up the country’s testing capacity, the Federal Government is set to take delivery of “over 100,000 cartridges of the GeneXpert machine through the Global Fund facility”, explaining that the GeneXpert machines come with four modules to accommodate the testing of four samples at a time.
The Minister said the “good thing about these machines is that they give you results in a much faster time, say about 45 minutes to 1 hour.”
In his remarks, the Director-General of the NCDC, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, warned that; “Every state is at risk right now”, adding; “So, the idea that moving from one state to another qualifies you to be at higher risk really is no longer the case.”
He said in the circumstance, the measures recommended globally is the same measure that NCDC is recommending for everyone in the country.
“Therefore, whatever measures we have to do, we have to do it collectively – whether you are in the North, South, East or West”, the NCDC Boss said.
Dr Ihekweazu also stated that 95 to 98 per cent of COVID-19 patients have continue to recover “irrespective of medical intervention and depending on where they are.”
