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The federal government is to engage 800,000 volunteers nationwide to sensitise Nigerians on the dangers and spread of COVID-19, the National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Dr Sani Aliyu, said thursday in Abuja.
He added that another 880 people were trained on sample collection, packaging and transportation.
And faced with an upsurge in the number of cases and shortage of bed space, the government is considering repurposing hotels and schools to serve as quarantine and isolation centres for COVID-19 patients.
Nigeria recorded 182 new cases of the virus yesterday, bringing to 8,915 the total number of persons infected.
Announcing this last night, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said Lagos recorded 111 new cases of the disease, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) 16, Akwa Ibom 10, Oyo eight, Kaduna and Delta six each, Rivers five, Ogun and Ebonyi four each, Kano three, Plateau, Gombe and Kebbi two each, while Kebbi, Bauchi and Borno have one each.
It said the virus had claimed 259 persons.
Meanwhile, PTF said it would on Sunday submit its next report to President Muhammadu Buhari, explaining that it would inform his decision on the next phase of measures to be taken in the gradual reopening of the economy.
Speaking yesterday in Abuja at a press briefing by PTF, Aliyu said the over 800,000 community engagement partners would be drawn from all the 774 local government areas of the federation to sensitise the public about the community spread of the virus and disseminate life-saving messages.
Aliyu said PTF would engage the partners for the campaign using existing community structures to disseminate messages to the grassroots.
The partners include National Orientation Agency (NOA), Nigeria Red Cross, UNICEF, NYSC members, National Council of Women Societies, Jamaatul Nasri Islam and Yar’Adua Foundation.
He said: ”The volunteers are all Nigerians who live in the communities and have been trained to engage and educate community members in their local languages and dialects.
“Our overall goal is to ensure that everyone has the information they need to protect themselves. The volunteers will be risking their lives for the greater good of Nigerians by providing the basic information we need so that we can change our behaviour and stop the spread of COVID-19.”
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the ministry had produced videos and radio jingles on general information on COVID -19, use of face masks, burial protocol, testimonials by COVID-19 survivors and mass gathering.
He said the jingles were currently running on 10 television channels, while the jingles were also running on 40 radio stations nationwide.
The minister added that the aggressive and sustained campaign on the social media had gained traction as in the last five days alone, some of the videos posted had been viewed over 1,068,614 times.
FG Trains 880 for Sample Collection Nationwide
NCDC Director-General, Dr. Chike Ihekweazu, stated that the initial challenge of the agency was on the collection and transportation of samples.
The centre was also faced with the challenge of leakage of samples.
He said to surmount the challenge, the agency had trained 880 people on collection, packaging and transportation of samples.
Ihekweazu explained that NCDC also targets to have one testing laboratory in each of the 36 states.
FG to Repurpose Hotels, Schools for Isolation Centres
The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, stated that hotels and school dormitories would be turned into isolation centres to accommodate COVID-19 patients due to shortage of bed space, if the upsurge in the number of cases continues.
He, however, said the situation in Nigeria would not “experience horrific scenes of bed space shortages seen in some European hospitals.”
He said: “We are, not surprisingly, worried about the increasing number of COVID-19 confirmed cases; first because every life matters, but also because of the capacity of our health system to cope.
“Nigeria presently has over 112 treatment and isolation centres in the 35 states and FCT with over 5,000 beds, but not all states have made it up to at least 300 beds prescribed for isolation and treatment.
“I had the privilege of commissioning one such centre yesterday, a repurposed hospital in Benin City, Edo State, with 300 beds, including ICU and an Edo State-owned PCR testing laboratory. We need to continue increasing bed capacity to match the probable number of patients, so that we do not experience horrific scenes of bed space shortages seen in some European hospitals.
“In the event of overflow, we can require hotels and school dormitories to be prepared for level 1 (Quarantine) and level 2 Isolation (of COVID-19 positive with zero or mild symptoms), to free hospital beds to be dedicated to level 3, (moderate to severe cases) and level 4, (high dependency and intensive care unit).
“I, therefore, call on activists and philanthropists to work with state governments in concerted steps to scale up non-pharmaceutical measures and beef up infrastructural assets for isolation and treatment in their states.
“Though we are in the community transmission phase of the response, easing social restrictions is desirable, but only if we can meet up with expectations that will not allow a spike in infection rates. This is what has led certain countries to reintroduce lockdowns. We are reviewing the health sector-specific advisories on re-opening the economy.
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