The Federal Government on Monday said that the recent declaration of industrial action by the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) is unfortunate and capable of reducing the nation’s gains and endangering more lives to COVID-19 pandemic.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman, Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, said this in Abuja at the 65th joint national briefing of the taskforce.
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He however noted the contribution of the nation’s health workers to the recorded gains and commended the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) for calling off their strike.
“We, therefore, call on JOHESU to stand up to be counted at this critical moment because a continuation of the strike could jeopardize the small gains made in the fight against the virus and the efforts to transform our health systems,” Mustapha said.
He said that the Minister of Labour and Employment has assured that every effort is being made to resolve all issues and have JOHESU call its members back to work.
He also lauded President Muhammadu Buhari for keeping the land borders closed because those are potential seeding points for importing the virus into Nigeria and that as ECOWAS Champion of the COVID-19 response, Mr. President should adopt all practical means of containing the virus within the sub-continent of West Africa.
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On the schools re-opening by some states, the SGF said that the PTF is aware that a number of sub-nationals have announced the re-opening of schools from this week, while others have developed a phased plan for such re-opening.
“I wish to re-iterate the need for more vigilance in adhering to protocols appropriately developed with the guidance of experts. The fear of a likely spike and/or resurgence should always put us on our toes. Always remember that a number of countries including Israel have announced new stringent measures. These are warning signs for us in Nigeria and Africa,” he said.
Mustapha noted that last Friday, marked six months since the World Health Organisation (WHO) used the term ‘pandemic’ to characterize the multiple outbreaks of COVID-19 reported around the world on 11th March 2020.
“The PTF updated you last week about the progress made with candidate vaccines and the phases of the trials. We also assured you that Nigeria will not be left out when eventually access is needed for a safe and effective vaccine certified by global public health authorities.
“Given this timeline, however, we do not expect vaccines to be available for countries till the second half of 2021. What this means is that we need to, more than ever before, adhere to the prescribed NPIs and diligently avoid contracting the virus,” he added.
Africa flattening the curve
He observed that a careful study of the numbers coming out of Africa will reveal that there is a flattening of the COVID-19 curve in the African region and that there has been a weekly decline in the number of new COVID-19 cases reported since the 20th July.
While noting that fatalities are also reducing as more than one million people have recovered, he however warned that though this is a welcome development, it should be learnt from other regions of the world that cases can decline only to start rising again.
The WHO has informed that it is working in collaboration with the Africa CDC to launch a network of laboratories dedicated to genetic sequencing so as to better understand the evolution of the pandemic and how SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19, is spreading.
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