Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
A total of 5000 health workers have been offered free health insurance cover a private insurance company.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic, Boss Mustapha, said the Life Insurance cover to the frontline workers who are employed to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said the premium in the sum of N112,500,000 for the cover has been fully paid by the Nigerian Insurance Industry in line with the principle of No Premium, No Cover.
Mustapha said this on Friday in Abuja at the 19th joint national briefing of the ccommittee.
According to him: “The premium in the sum of N112.5m for the cover has been fully paid by the Nigerian Insurance Industry in line with the principle of No Premium, No Cover. The PTF wishes to thank the Insurance Industry immensely and calls on others sectors of the economy to rise up to support the efforts to fight COVID-19. I also call on our frontline health workers to double their efforts just as we assure them of our determination to protect them.”
The SGF also said that the PTF committee would extend it’s workings to West African neighbours to tackle the novel Coronavirus.
According to him, the ECOWAS Heads of State on Thursday, held a Summit via video conference to chart a common course for the sub-region on COVID-19 and in order to ensure high-level coordination of all the regional efforts to contain the pandemic, the summit appointed President Muhammadu Buhari, as Champion, to coordinate the COVID-19 response and eradication pprocess.
Mustapha said, “This is a monumental recognition for the leadership role of our President and an endorsement of the direction we are headed in our national response. The implication of this assignment is that the PTF must now factor the West African sub-region into its plan and activities, to support Mr. President in his new role.
“I must add that the summit also set up Ministerial Coordination Committees on Health, Finance, and Transport to coordinate Regional efforts, under the supervision of the Champion.”
Mustapha also said that the PTF had embarked on the assessment of the readiness in nine states and that the visits have been quite informative and has led to the committee strengthening their collaboration with states.
He said the PTF will be fine tuning the directions and advisories in order to effectively guide the states and for uniformity of approach, and therefore commended the governments of all states visited for providing leadership and resources in their preparations.
He added, “The PTF continues to work assiduously towards presenting a report to Mr. President after considering all critical factors. Let me state that these are unusual times, we are in uncharted territories and we need to forge ahead. As we work out our models, we also draw lessons from other jurisdictions that have experiences to share. “We shall however continue to pursue the strategy of aggressive testing, detection, isolation, contact tracing, treatment and care.”