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COVID-19: 812 health workers infected till date, says FG

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The Federal Government on Tuesday said not less than 812 health workers have been infected with the COVID-19 virus in the line of duty.

It, however, reiterated that the protection of health workers, especially those in the frontline of the pandemic are its priority, and will ensure the constant provision of personal protective equipment (PPEs), to shield them from exposure.

The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, made this known during the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, in Abuja.

He said: “As we go further in the easing of the restrictions, I just want to remind all of us that the easing of the restrictions doesn’t mean the easing of the response. In fact, the public response is being strengthen.

“Crossing the 10,000 mark was quite a significant event, and every night when we work so hard to bring out those numbers, sometimes numbers begin to feel like what they are, that we forget that they are people behind each number.

“We have had 812 healthcare workers infected. They are not just numbers. Twenty-nine (29) of these work for the NCDC. They are people I know who have families, wives and children. About eight (8) of them right now are in the Idu treatment center. They are not just numbers but they are people and they matter and we must remember.

“We have distributed over 40,000 pieces of complete PPEs and will continue to do this. By this weekend new consignment will be going out to every state, every Federal Medical Centres in the country.

“We now have the third highest number of confirmed cases on the continent just after South Africa and Egypt. It means that there is an added responsibility for us to work harder everyday.”

He added: “We have increased our testing capacity. We have now tested over 65,000 samples and increase our lab network to 30; having been just activated the laboratories in Bauchi State and Abuja.

“60 percent of our cases are in 20 local governments. We have published this local government with the new regulations with the new easing of restrictions. This means that we will focus a lot of our efforts on those 20 local government out of the 774, to prevent spread to others.

“We have deployed 37 Rapid Response Team with over 450 people that have left their homes for weeks on end, supporting the response across the country. We have sent over 100 million text messages through the support of MTN, Glo, 9Mobile and all the big Telcos.”

The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, added: “We have conducted an analysis of Health Care Worker Infections and identified critical areas for targeted intervention, to include continuous updates and retraining.

“More than 13,000 health workers have been trained, which will result in reduced rate of infection, especially in the line of duty. We are collaborating with States to cascade the training to lower cadre workers.

“We are trying to give the best attention to frontline health workers because they are the most valuable and precious. The protocol is in fact developed by the NCDC for those who may have exposed themselves in any way to risk.

“By the time they finish their shift, there is a place where they go and rest and also keep away to see if they have symptoms. Some of them may be tested. This is to ensure that they are safe before they go to their families.

“We are also putting it on priority for getting personal protective equipment. Most speeches we make here, we pay tribute to them, to their services and to how important they are to us and to the entire system.

“The incentives that are built-in are part of the general incentives. The Ministries of Health, Labour, and Finance are finalizing the guidelines for the incentives which includes insurance and hazard allowance.”

Coronavirus

Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech is more than 90 percent effective in the first analysis, company reports

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Pfizer and partner BioNTech said Monday that their vaccine against Covid-19 was strongly effective, exceeding expectations with results that are likely to be met with cautious excitement — and relief — in the face of the global pandemic.

The vaccine is the first to be tested in the United States to generate late-stage data. The companies said an early analysis of the results showed that individuals who received two injections of the vaccine three weeks apart experienced more than 90% fewer cases of symptomatic Covid-19 than those who received a placebo. For months, researchers have cautioned that a vaccine that might only be 60% or 70% effective. 

The Phase 3 study is ongoing and additional data could affect results.

Read more via statsnews.com

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EPL confirms eight positive COVID-19 tests

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The Premier League in England said on Monday that eight people had returned positive results in its latest round of COVID-19 tests conducted on players and staff last week.

The league said the individuals who had tested positive for the novel coronavirus would now self-isolate for 10 days.

“The Premier League can today confirm that between Monday, Oct. 12 and Sunday, Oct. 18, 1,575 players and club staff were tested for COVID-19. Of these, there were eight new positive tests,” the Premier League said in a statement.

A total of 42 people have tested positive for the virus in seven rounds of testing since the new campaign began on Sept. 12.

There have been more than 750,000 COVID-19 infections and over 43,000 deaths in the UK, according to a Reuters tally.

(Reuters/NAN)

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[#EndSARS Protests] Nigeria should prepare for increase in COVID-19 cases — FG warns

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Federal Government has warned that with the on-going #ENDSARS protests across the country, cases of COVID-19 will definitely increase in the coming weeks.

Issuing the warning in Abuja, the Chairman, Presidential Taskforce, PTF, on COVID-19 and Secretary to the Government of the Federation SGF, Mr. Boss Mustapha, said despite the appreciable success recorded so far in the fight against COVID-19, the ongoing protests might spark up a second wave of the virus.

He said:  “I can say it authoritatively that with the ongoing protests across the country, in the next two weeks the cases of COVID-19 would have increased. Each and everyone that attended the protests and did not put up any form of protection are likely going to spread the virus. When people contract the virus during the protest gathering, they will go back home and spread it.

“This is one of the reasons we must be extremely careful when we congregate because when you gather together in such an atmosphere where people don’t wear face masks or maintain social distance you are creating potential opportunities for carriers to spread the virus.

“So far we have done pretty well as a country but this protest is like a setback and we must avoid a situation where we will have resurgence. Countries that thought they have overcome are dealing with second wave. We are extremely lucky as a nation and we should be careful of any situation that can warrant second wave.”

Corroborating his views as reported by Vanguard, National Coordinator of PTF on COVID-19, Dr Sani Aliyu, said FCT and Lagos State have successfully tested one percent of their populations, while states such as Rivers, Plateau, Gombe were half way in achieving the one percent target.

“We urge other states to work hard in achieving this target of 1 percent testing because testing rate is still low in the country.  Through our various member MDAs, ‘’We have trained at least 17,000 health works in infection prevention and control, laboratory operation and case management.

“In partnership with Federal Ministry of Heath we have added over 7,000 beds in more than 130 treatment centres, 250 intensive care unit beds through support from donors and the private sector,’’ he said.

On his part, the Minister of State for Health, Adeleke Mamora, said the ministry has distributed ventilator and oxygen to all federal and state hospitals.

He disclosed that one of the challenges federal hospitals were facing was irregular power supply which often leads to breakdown of equipment and disruption of services, “We receive the management of power holding to discuss way of having regular power supply to our teaching hospital and medical centres, this partnership will reduce overhead cost of the hospital,’’ he said.

He said their experience with the management of the pandemic revealed that many of the victims died could have been saved if they had access to services on time, adding that, during their intervention in Kano, ambulances were deployed to evacuate people in critical condition to the hospital.

Meanwhile, President of the Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, Prof Innocent Ujah, disclosed yesterday that no fewer than 1,031 doctors in Nigeria have been exposed to coronavirus in the country, while 16 mortality cases were recorded as of October 8, 2020. According to him, this puts the mortality rate at 4.98 percent.

Speaking at a press conference in Lagos to announce the NMA 2020 Physicians’ Week, with the theme ‘’Strategy for health system recovery during the Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria” and sub-theme: “Dental caries: The four-pronged fork.” Ujah said of the 1,031 cases, 321 were confirmed, while 16 doctors were lost in the battle against the virus.

Ujah, who expressed sadness over the deaths of  members, described their death as the prize they had to pay in obedience to the Hippocratic Oath of their profession. Stating that COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the inadequacies of health systems around the world,  the NMA president said many health systems across the world were overwhelmed by the pandemic due to inadequate emergency preparedness and response, largely due to inadequate human resources, infrastructural deficit and medical consumables, including personal protective equipment and other protective equipment.

He pointed out that most countries, such as Nigeria, were suffering due to gross under-funding of the health sector. He said:   “No disease has ever before laid bare the state of the country’s health sector like COVID-19. COVID-19 has revealed acute shortages of critical and lifesaving equipment such as ventilators and intensive care beds in our hospitals.”

Ujah added that the dire shortages of medical capacity has further put a spotlight on the poor state of health in Nigeria and distance to travel to ensure that health care was affordable and accessible to all citizens for Universal Health Coverage, UHC, to be achieved.

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