Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja.
The Federal Government has called for the scale up of non-pharmaceutical interventions as part of measures to flatten the curve of COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
The Minister of State Health, Dr. Olorunnimbe Mamora, made the call at the briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19.
According to him, government has also developed a guideline for the establishment of Community Support Centres due to the community transmission stage of COVID-19.
He said that as at Wednesday, the nation had 649 new confirmed cases bringing the total number of cases in the country to 22,020; while 7,613 persons have so far been treated and discharge and 542 deaths recorded.
Mamora said that on Tuesday, 23rd June, 2020, an Emergency National Council on Health was held virtually attended by State Commissioners of Health, Head of Agencies, Directors at the Federal Ministry of Health Development Partners and other stakeholders in the health sector to review status and align all response to COVID-19 outbreak in States.
He said that the Council approved the Health Sector COVID-19 Pandemic Response Action Plan which was developed by the Federal Ministry of Health in collaboration with departments and agencies to present one response in the health sector delivered in a coordinated and strategic manner.
“As we learn more about the disease, we continue to evolve response actions. The community transmission has resulted in the high number of confirmed cases with the challenge that in some states, the facilities for case management may become overwhelmed.
“Bearing in mind the importance of managing cases in facilities, the Federal Ministry of Health through the NPHCDA has developed a guideline for the establishment of Community Support Centres,” he said.
He said that a central objective of the guideline is the establishment of Community Support Centres (CSCs) in selected clusters of Local Government Areas for the management of COVID-19 cases.
He said that these community support centres will strengthen the capacity of the health system at the community level to respond to the outbreak and result in the reduction of the transmission of COVID-19 within communities in high burden and high density states.
Mamora said, “We must daily be reminded of challenges COVID-19 poses to Nigeria and the world, and further reinforce our resolve to tackle the pandemic. We can reduce case fatality in Nigeria, if non-pharmaceutical interventions are scaled up and we become more proactive in dealing with positive cases.
“We can scale up testing, tracing, treatment and Isolation, with priority on offering more protection to elderly citizens and those with co-morbidities, from the threat of infection.”