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The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, has said that the novel coronavirus disease otherwise referred to as COVID-19 is still among us and is infecting people daily, including prominent members of the society.
Speaking during the briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 in Abuja on Thursday, Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, warned that the increasing number of cases should be a warning that fatalities will increase too.
The minister noted that a majority of fatalities recorded were people within the age bracket of 50 years and those with pre-existing ailments such as diabetes, cancer, and hypertension, among others.
While urging Nigerians to specially protect those who fall in such groups, Dr. Ehanire added that they should be encouraged to stay at home to limit them from being exposed to COVID-19.
According to Ehanire, such categories of people must observe all other non-pharmaceutical advisories, including frequent hand washing, social distancing, respiratory hygiene, and use of sanitiser among others.
He urged them to avoid going to market, worship centres, and places where there can be a crowd.
He said: ‘’We have said that the increasing number of cases should be a warning that fatalities will increase too; but there are measures we can take, to limit case fatality rate.
‘’Since majority of fatalities are over 50 years of age, or have pre- existing ailments like diabetes, cancer, hypertension, kidney disease, HIV, etc, this group of citizens has to be specially protected.
‘’This protection begins with limiting their exposure to risks of COVID-19 infection by urging stay at home, except there is an urgent and dire need to go out.
‘’To wear a face mask or a covering at any time, once outside the house, or when inside the house with persons who may have been exposed.
‘’I must emphasise that going to places where there can be a crowd, like market or also places of worship carries risk of increased exposure.
l also stress that being in a closed room increases the risk of exposure to infection in proportion to the number of people and the length of time spent with them, because the likelihood of presence of a positive person increases with the number and infection with time of exposure.
‘’All persons in the vulnerable group who test positive should go to a treatment centre immediately, in their own best interest.
A vulnerable person is not among those who should risk staying at home, because complications can arise easily and suddenly or at an odd hour of the day or night when there will be no immediate help available.
‘’Any person who tested positive and opted to stay home or elsewhere should move to a treatment centre at the first sign of fever or shortness or breath. A delay can be fatal because the disease progression can be unpredictable and faster than imagined’’.
On his part, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman of the PTF, Mr. Boss Mustapha, said that resistance to change is one of the greatest challenges it had faced in managing the national response against the pandemic.
He warned citizens not to let their guards down against the disease in view of the relaxation of the lockdown and added that besides resistance to change by nationals, other challenges facing the national response were non-availability of a cure, inadequate manpower and infrastructure, the effect of the outbreak on the economy as well as scarcity of kits and equipment needed to fight the spread of the virus.
“Like the rest of the world, our National Response continues to face challenges, especially as there is no known cure for the virus, presently.
These include inadequate infrastructure, manpower shortage, global shortage of essential items (test kits, PPE), strain on the economy which has compelled the need to balance between lives and livelihoods.
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“By far the greatest challenges are human resistance to change, stigmatisation, mental health, skepticism, culture, religious belief, rising incidents of domestic violence and a host of others.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the COVID-19 has changed our ways of life and we may never go back to what we used to know,” he said.
Earlier, the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, informed that the June 21 date for the resumption of domestic flights in the country was no longer feasible.
The minister, who was represented at the PTF briefing by the Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Capt Musa Nuhu, said: “June 21st is not a feasible date to resume domestic operations.
“The civil aviation authority despite pressures coming from all quarters will not approve the start any day until we are sure and we confirm that we are ready to start in a safe, secure, organised and efficient manner. To do otherwise is disastrous for all of us.
“If we open the industry when we are not ready, and we are guilty of spreading coronavirus, God forbid we have any incident, I believe the government will come hard on us and it is going to be counterproductive and disastrous for the industry’’.
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