COVID-19: Deploy taskforce to urban slums, Makinde, Sanwo-Olu told

Ibadan – The University of Ibadan Urban Health Research Team has advised the governments of Oyo and Lagos states to deploy their COVID-19 taskforce teams to urban slums in their respective states to prevent community transmission of coronavirus.

In a statement issued on Wednesday in Ibadan, the Head of the team, Prof. Akinyinka Omigbodun, urged Govs. Babatunde Sanwo-Olu and Seyi Makinde of Lagos and Oyo states respectively, to consider creating access points to the slum communities.

The research team, funded by the National Institute for Research (NIHR), UK, said it had carried out stakeholder engagements in Bariga, Idi-Ikan and Sasha slum communities in the two states.

The team noted that the slum communities in question displayed poor adherence to advisories on prevention, issued by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) due to their peculiar nature.

According to Omigbodun, non-adherence to preventive measures and lack of protective kits, such as hand sanitisers and face masks, can negatively affect the efforts at curtailing the spread of the virus.

He called on the governors to engage in massive sensitisation in the communities and other slum settlements, and also distribute free face masks and hand sanitisers to the residents.

The don also said that distribution of palliatives must reach urban slum dwellers, who had become highly vulnerable, owing to the lull in economic activities.

Lockdown: Army arrests impersonators parading as Fake Lt.- Col, Major for 12 years

The team also recommended that primary healthcare professionals be equipped with personal protection kits to prevent them from being exposed to infection before patients were transferred to the test and isolation centers.

“The access and utilisation of health facilities in urban slums are not encouraging.

“With COVID-19, the governments of the two states need to do more about community sensitisation and supply of palliatives as well as the provision of testing facilities in slum communities.

“We also found that healthcare professionals are not supplied with sufficient number of personal protective equipment.

“This is not good enough, considering the crucial role they play in health service delivery at the community level,” he said. (NAN)