Expect more COVID-19 deaths — FG

The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, says the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the country should be a warning that fatalities will increase too.

The minister said this in Abuja on Thursday during the briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.

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He, however, noted that there were measures that could be taken to limit the fatality rate.

He said: “Since majority of fatalities are over 50 years of age or have pre-existing ailments like diabetes, cancer, hypertension, kidney disease, HIV, among others; 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’s 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.

“Going to places where there can be a crowd like market or also places of worship carries risk of increased exposure and 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.

“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’ll 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 of breath.

“A delay can be fatal because the disease progression can be unpredictable and faster than imagined.

“With these important measures, we could mitigate the fatality rate.

“The novel coronavirus is still among us and is infecting people daily, including prominent members of the society.

“Friends and family have an increasingly important role to play in helping to guide compliance with this advisory.

“Till it goes away, we must take extreme precaution when going to public places.”

Ehanire disclosed that treatment centres would be getting an advisory to test the applicability of a drug recently repurposed and found effective for COVID-19 treatment.

He also said Nigeria had signed a bilateral agreement with North Korea in the area of public health and medical sciences.

PTF National Coordinator, Sani Aliyu, stressed that COVID-19 was far from over.

He warned: “Now, more than ever before, if you go out, you’re more likely to get COVID-19 than before.

“Your risk of acquiring COVID because of the numbers we’ve now is more than three, four weeks or five weeks ago when we had a lockdown, so there really is not any room or relaxation at this point.”

He noted that the government relaxed the lockdown to sustain the livelihood of Nigerians, particularly depending on a daily income for survival, as well as to sustain our economy “not because COVID has gone and it wasn’t because we should be more relaxed in terms of our prevention measures.”

He said the government had noticed that a lot of people did not wear masks in public spaces “There are also concerns about physical distancing and the issue of mass gatherings.”

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, asked Nigerians to “pray not to get to the hospital. Pray not to get infected. And the only way you’ll not get infected is by listening to what the NCDC is saying.”

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation and PTF Chairman, Boss Mustapha, listed human resistance to change, stigmatization, mental health, scepticism, culture, religious belief and domestic violence as part of the greatest challenges faced by the PTF in the last three months of its assignment.

He mentioned other challenges as inadequate infrastructure, manpower shortage and global shortage of essential items (test kits, PPE) as well as strain on the economy.

He asked Nigerians to always remember that the virus is real, potent and dangerous.

“This call becomes more pertinent as we go fully into the rainy season that ordinarily brings with it cold, catarrh and other COVID-19 mimicking illnesses. Our call to take personal responsibility cannot be more strident than now,” he added.

Mustapha, who noted that this Wednesday made it exactly three months since the PTF was inaugurated for its six-month assignment, said the taskforce had planned a full mid-term report with larger stakeholders’ groups on July 2 and 3.