…recommends use of face masks …says 92% of contacts traced By Omeiza Ajayi – Abuja The Federal Government on Monday noted that some of its new laboratories in the country are currently underutilized. This is as the government also recommended the use of face masks by Nigerians in order to reduce their susceptibility to infection
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…recommends use of face masks
…says 92% of contacts traced
By Omeiza Ajayi – Abuja
The Federal Government on Monday noted that some of its new laboratories in the country are currently underutilized.
This is as the government also recommended the use of face masks by Nigerians in order to reduce their susceptibility to infection by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) disease.
According to the government, Nigerians do not have to resort to using ‘medical-grade’ or surgical masks which are normally discarded after four hours of usage, advising that homemade masks which are cheap and reusable would serve the same purpose.
This was as the government said it has successfully traced about 92 percent of targeted contacts since the lockdown of Abuja, Lagos and Ogun states were proclaimed by President Muhammadu Buhari on March 29 as part of emergency regulations to halt the spread of the Novel Coronavirus.
No fewer than 6, 700 contacts were being traced as at when the lockdown was declared.
Chairman of the Presidential Taskforce and Secretary to the Government of the Federation SGF, Mr Boss Mustapha disclosed this at the daily briefing of the team in Abuja.
that Nigeria was slow in conducting tests for COVID-19, the Taskforce said while it now conducts 1, 500 tests daily, some of its new laboratories in the country are currently underutilized.
According to the SGF, “since the broadcast of the President on Sunday 29th March, 2020 the Presidential Task Force has slowed down the spread in order not to overwhelm our fragile health system; intensified case identification, testing, and isolation.
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“Intensified contact listing and isolation -( 92% of all contacts have been identified); increased laboratories by 100%- (Lagos -3; Abuja-2; Irua-1; Ibadan UCH-1; Iree-1; Jos-1; Kano-1; Abakaliki-1) there are now 11 laboratories in the network; increased testing by 50%, to the current capacity of 1,500 tests per day, with over 6,000 tests done.
“Procurement concluded for new high throughput testing by end of the month; Distributed Personal Protective Equipment to over 40,000 healthcare workers – there have been no stockouts; trained over 7,000 Healthcare workers on infection prevention and control; deployed NCDC teams to 19 states and more”.
Masked Nation
Health Minister, Dr Osagie Ehanire said the usage of mask was not compulsory, but only a recommendation by the Taskforce.
“We said we are recommending. We are not saying it is compulsory, we are recommending. Secondly, we also said that, it does not have to be hospital-grade mask.
“It does not have to be medical or surgical-grade. You can make your own and preferably, your mask can be washable. You can wash it and iron it and reuse.
“The ones many of us are using here now are single-use which you have to throw away but you do not need that for day to day activities and the purpose of that mask is to shield you and shield your opposite because if anyone is emitting any kind of droplet or particles by way of coughing or sneezing or when people are shouting, laughing or exclaiming, you can capture them through the barrier.
“It can even be a scarf you tie across your mouth so that you do not run the risk of transmitting it to someone else. That is why we said it must be washed every evening, preferably in warm water and then dried and ironed.
“If you do that, you are safe to reuse it the next day. We are making that recommendation and also particularly stretching it to food vendors in the interest of their customers”, he said.
Underutilized Labs
National Coordinator of the Taskforce, Dr Sani Aliyu on his part said newly-opened laboratories in the country are currently underutilized.
According to him; “On the issue of testing, I know there has been a lot in the Press recently. Part of the reason why we have not proceeded as fast as we can is because of the demand as well.
We are not having as much demand for testing in those laboratories that we have activated and I am asking those laboratories particularly the ones that were activated in the last few days to please put forward processes that will allow them to key in, particularly in areas where there are suspicions of people having COVID-19.
This does not only include people who have had contact or those who have travelled abroad. It also includes persons with unusual respiratory tract infections, particularly severe respiratory tract infections requiring hospitalization and I will ask that those laboratories that we have activated in the last one week should widen their scope when it comes to selection of testing based on our protocols so that we can have more positives identified and isolated.
“There is no room for massive community testing for Coronavirus. I would rather do a hundred tests and get 10 positives rather than do 1, 000 tests and get 10 positives.
It is all a out improving the efficiency of the tests. It is better to test persons that have symptoms because what we call the pre-test probability is higher.
When we talk about incubation period, this is the period between when you get an infection and the time the symptoms happen. And the incubation period is when the virus multiplies in the body and it is not excreted.
If you are in the incubation period, you will not be excreting the virus and the test is looking for the presence of the virus.
Therefore, if you do the test during the incubation period which may range from between two, three days to 14 days, the test will be negative. In other words, you could still be in an incubation period and it will give you a false assurance that everything is alright. That is why we do not recommend doing the tests in the absence of symptoms.
The reason why in some cases some people might be asymptomatic and still have a positive result, which is extremely rare, is because a lot of people might have mild symptoms that you will not even notice.
This is why we need to do the test at the right time in order to pick up the virus.
“So, we are not going to start doing massive testing in the communities. It will be inefficient, it will be expensive and it is not going to help us increase the number of positives”, he explained.
Aviation minister, Hadi Sirika who spoke on the faceoff between the ministry and the Rivers State Government said the Federal Government is currently dialoguing with the state government to effect the release of two pilots of Caverton Helicopters who were last week arrested and remanded at a state facility in Port Harcourt for breaching an Executive Order made by the state governor, Nyesom Wike.
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Author:Rasheed Sobowale
