In an effort to contain the spread of Covid-19 in the country, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is currently tracing over 5,000 contacts across the country.
This is even as the federal government has concluded plans to increase the number of bed spacing in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in preparation for any eventuality.
Speaking at the media briefing organised by the Covid-19 Presidential Task Force, Tuesday, the Director General of NCDC, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, disclosed that it was the determination of his Centre to track the over 5000 contacts that necessitated the lock down of Lagos, FCT and Ogun states by the President.
According to him: “The strategy that we are still implementing is one of containment; it means that we are still at the point when we think we have the window of opportunity to identify all the cases and confirm if they have the disease, bring them into care, confirm all their contacts, follow up on each of them, make sure that they do not have the disease, and for those who have the disease bring, them into care.
“This is a very tedious process, and we are following up about 5,000 contacts across the country.
“This is one of the reason the President asked us what we needed and gave us two weeks to free up the road and enable us to have the space to do this effectively.
“This comes at some pain to many Nigerians in Lagos, Ogun, and Abuja, but it is a necessary recommendation in order that public health workers working particularly in Lagos and Abuja have the opportunity to reach all of these contacts and make sure that they are okay.”
Meanwhile, the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, has reiterated that plans have been concluded to get about 1000 bed capacity in the Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to be used as isolation centres.
“Training is ongoing for medical personnel to support overall preparedness and treatment.
“We are preparing about 1,000 beds in Abuja, to be used immediately as isolation centres if the need arises.
“The capacity to increase bed space is present. Resources for the procurement of required commodities have been provided.
“More testing sites have been opened in Ibadan and Abakaliki, while existing laboratories are being optimized in their performance.
“With new additions to the case definition, persons with fever and either cough or difficulty in breathing or shortness of breath in the areas of high COVID-19 prevalence can be tested for the disease.
“More laboratories will join the network of molecular diagnostic laboratories for COVID-19 in Kaduna, Kano, Maiduguri, Port Harcourt and Sokoto.
“Within the next 2 or 3 weeks, the over 300 Gene Xpert machines that are used for tuberculosis diagnosis will be converted to be used for COVID-19 detection.”
He explained that, “as of today March 31, 2020, we have recorded 135 confirmed cases of Coronavirus in Nigeria, of which 81 are in Lagos, 25 in the FCT, 8 in Oyo, 4 in Ogun, 3 in Kaduna, 2 in Bauchi, 2 in Edo, 5 in Osun, 2 in Enugu, and one each in Benue, Ekiti and Rivers.”
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