The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, has expressed concern over the resurgence of COVID-19 infections among healthcare workers across the country.
He disclosed this at the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 media briefing in Abuja, on Thursday.
He, however, said that, his Ministry was making efforts to train and retrain healthcare workers on infection prevention and control in all States of the Federation.
“In a bid to sustain the gains we have made in reducing the rate of infection among our health workers, we have made training and retraining of health workers on infection prevention and control.
“In Abia State, we have concluded the training of 594 Healthcare Workers from private and public health facilities on infection prevention and control.
“We are currently investigating healthcare associated infection in a health facility in Kaduna State. Lessons learnt from this will be used to improve service delivery.
“I encourage our health workers not to drop their guards as the pandemic is still with us. Use your PPEs appropriately and judiciously. We have ensured that PPEs are available in all our health facilities,” he said.
Ehanire revealed that the government was targeting “to test one percent of our population across the country.
“As of today, more than 70% of all the tests conducted have been in nine States, including Lagos, Kano, FCT, Plateau, Oyo, Kaduna, Edo Ogun Rivers with 25% of the tests in Lagos alone. We shall continue to work with state governments to ramp up case findings and sample collection activities.”
The Health Minister, however, lamented that the COVID-19 pandemic has had huge negative impact on young people.
According to him, “as at Wednesday, 46% of positive cases in the country are young people between ages 21-40.
“I, will, therefore appeal to our youth to take responsibility.
“Let us ensure that we adhere to the advisories to wear face masks appropriately, regularly wash your hands and ensure respiratory hygiene.”
