COVID-19

COVID-19: The Unending Lockdown in Nigeria – Ya’u Mukhtar

Published

4 years ago

June 15, 2020

COVID-19: The Unending Lockdown in Nigeria – Ya’u Mukhtar

Ever since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus infection which emanated from Wuhan, a city in Hubei province of China and subsequently leads to the current pandemic and unending lockdown, the disease has been travelling and fast spreading across various nations of the world.

By March 11th, 2020 the number of countries involved with the infection hit 114, with more than 118,000 cases and over 4000 deaths. This prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) through its Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to declare the disease a pandemic status. Currently the world is facing dark days that the humanity doesn’t witness since that of Spanish Influenza which occurred between 1918-1920.

As of 11th June, 2020, the total contaminated cases in Nigeria hit 13,873 (out of which 9,140 are still active) while 4,351 has been discharged with 382 deaths. On account of that, governments are warning people, especially those at high risk to be particularly stringent in observing social distancing measures, wearing face masks and in some cases total or partial lockdown protocol of a province(s) were put in place as the COVID-19 pandemic accelerates globally. This is because if they become ill they are more likely to need critical care including ventilation, and may even leads to death.

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Currently, there is no special vaccine for this virus yet and only supportive therapy is the treatment strategy followed by health professionals. This includes administration of antipyretic and analgesic, maintenance of hydration, mechanical ventilation as respiratory support and uses of antibiotics on the patients.

However, researchers claims that; it is possible that some people can even counteract the virus thereby becoming infected and subsequently get recuperated automatically without any medical intervention due to their strong body’s immune system.

According to an unpublished data pulled out from a recent survey study conducted in Madobi town, Kano state to assess the recurrent prevalence of possible novel coronavirus symptoms among the inhabitants during the period of April to May, it was found out that 96% out of the 50 respondents interviewed have suffered from one or more common COVID-19 symptoms (i.e. fever, headache, cough, loss of smell, loss of taste, fatigue, loss of appetite, vomiting, diarrhea and shortness of breath) including catarrh/common cold. Interestingly, 87.5% recoveries of these cases were reported mostly without even medication.

The global fast spread of this virus is imposing new rules on our life, our relations and our activities. As a result of the ravaging coronavirus pandemic, most countries across the world were in total or partial lockdowns so as to prevent its transmission leading to the ban of religious gatherings, while markets, schools, restaurants, hotels, companies, malls and host of others remain closed.

This lockdown protocol which is without reasonable success is inflicting countless damage on populace especially those in developing and undeveloped countries, because there has been halt on socio-economic, cultural and political activities. This behooves me to ask this question; is the government really on a right track regarding imposition of this lingering lockdowns protocol?

Unfortunately, upon all these measures put in place, the villain virus has keep on spreading with no sign of stoppage in a near future and it seem that the virus is going to be with us for the foreseeable future and nobody wants to continue having lockdowns as we have at the moment.

Because this unending lockdown may do more harm than good as a result of its effect to the people and economies of nation at large. Sequel to that, a number of countries including China, Iran, Spain, Denmark, Portugal, South Africa, Ghana, et al eased their lockdowns and in most cases have since resumed their normal activities while a host of others are on the process of developing guidelines and protocols of following the same suit.

Recently, there was a call by Dr. David Nabarro, the Special Envoy to World Health Organization and its Director-General on COVID-19 in which he opined that government should prepare a COVID-Ready society in which people will learn to live with the virus instead of this unending lockdown as a preventive measure having produced no vaccine or cure for the virus. It is obvious that, the Envoy has no doubt spoken the minds of millions of people round the globe.

According to him, establishing a COVID-Ready state requires the full and willing participation of people, a high level organization within communities, public health services as well as COVID-Ready hospitals and other health care facilities. Additionally, COVID-19 tracing, containment and neighborhood health watch will be necessary even when the present wave of outbreak is gone and still unending Lockdown.

Although younger people appear generally at lower risk, for now, everyone must adhere to government restrictions to protect the millions of people at higher risk due to age or serious comorbidities (history of underlying medical conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, heart diseases, cancer, kidney or liver diseases etc.).

Nevertheless, it is hoped that the governments as a matter of urgency will review its guidelines and protocols towards containment of this pandemic so that the world can quickly regain back its fitness and continue to enjoy unending peace. Lastly, more testing centers especially in remote areas should be established and mode of contact tracing be enhanced as this will greatly facilitate and expedite the fight against this devilish novel virus so as to finally lay it to rest.

Ya’u MUKHTAR writes from Madobi, Kano State.

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COVID-19

PCR Tests for Travellers Fraudulent, Probe NCDC, Ministry – WHO Envoy

Published

2 years ago

March 18, 2022

GiftUgbede

PCR Tests for Travellers Fraudulent, Probe NCDC, Ministry – WHO Envoy

The World Health Organisation’s Special Envoy for the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, Ayoade Alakija, has called for an investigation of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and the Ministry of Health over the required COVID-19 PCR tests for inbound passengers to Nigeria.

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Alakija, in a tweet via her official Twitter handle, @yodifiji, wondered why the PCR tests were done with no reagents.
According to reports, the Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Ifedayo Adetifa, had earlier insisted that Nigeria would not scrap COVID-19 tests for inbound passengers into the country.

Adetifa had said the country was reporting a high rate of COVID-19 cases from inbound passengers, hence the need for the insistence of the tests.
Alakija, reacting to a tweet by a journalist, David Hundeyin, tweeted, “It’s a scam. The entire thing is a criminal enterprise and should be exposed. “Diagnostic tests to enter a country where the government officials have interest in Dx test centres. PCR tests with no reagents? NCDC and MOH should be investigated. It is a scam, period.”

COVID-19

Austria Suspends Mandatory Covid-19 Vaccine Law

Published

2 years ago

March 9, 2022

GiftUgbede

Austria has announced that it is suspending mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations for all adults this came weeks after the legislature took effect in an EU first.

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The Alpine nation of nine million people was among few countries in the world to make jabs against the coronavirus compulsory for all adults.
The law took effect in February and called for fines up to 3,600 euros ($3,940) from mid-March for those who do not comply.

However, minister Karoline Edtstadler said the law’s “encroachment of fundamental rights” could no longer be justified by the danger posed by the pandemic.
“After consultations with the health minister, we have decided that we will of course follow what the (expert) commission has said,” Edtstadler told reporters after a Cabinet meeting.
“We see no need to actually implement this compulsory vaccination due to the (Omicron) variant that we are predominantly experiencing here.” He noted

According to him,the highly-contagious variant is widely believed to be less severe than previous strains of the virus, and so far Austrian hospitals have been able to cope with a surge in cases.

COVID-19

F.G. Commences Vaccination with Over 30 Million J&J Vaccines

Published

2 years ago

February 25, 2022

GiftUgbede

Following efforts to increase the COVID-19 vaccination coverage of eligible persons across the country, the Federal Government has launched the service delivery, communication, accountability, logistics, electronic reporting, and supportive supervision (S.C.A.L.E.S) strategy.

The SCALES 2.0 strategy, which will ensure that more Nigerians can easily locate a nearby health facility to get vaccinated by visiting the website (www.vacsitefinder.nphcda.gov.ng), will also integrate childhood immunisation alongside other primary health care services.

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Also, eligible persons can now get vaccinated with a single shot of the Johnson and Johnson (J&J) COVID-19 vaccines, as there are over 30 million vaccine doses available.

Nigeria has received over 64 million COVID-19 vaccines – AstraZeneca, Moderna, J&J and Pfizer. Furthermore, 48 million vaccines are expected before mid-year.

Latest vaccination data showed that as of February 21, 2022, a total of 17,199,853 eligible Nigerians have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccination, while 7,663,560 have received their second dose. In total, 24,863,413 vaccine doses have been administered.

The Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib, made this known in Abuja during the launch of the SCALES 2.0 strategy with the use of the single dose J&J vaccine.

Dr Shuaib said: “We want to ensure that we not only decentralise COVID-19 vaccination, but make sure that we improve coverage and access to COVID-19 vaccination. Today, we are vaccinating just a little over 200,000 people per day. For us to reach our target of reaching 70 per cent of eligible populations before the end of 2022, we have to hit 550,000 people per day. This will ensure that we reach herd immunity.

“We are also going to be launching the single shot vaccine (Johnson & Johnson) for everyone. We understand that one of the reasons there is a gap between our first and second doses is because people experience adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination. Although the adverse events are very mild, we know that the opportunity to have a single shot not only in the hardest to reach areas, but everybody having access to one single shot will definitely increase our coverage of COVID-19 vaccination.

“The COVID-19 vaccination ‘site finder’ will improve the ability of Nigerians to assess COVID-19 vaccines. If you are able to sign on to this website, you will be shown the nearest COVID-19 vaccination centre.”

In her remarks, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Dr Moeti Matshidiso, hailed the Federal Government’s vaccination strategy and efforts in ensuring that more Nigerians are covered.

She said: “I think we have learnt many lessons on how to leverage the capacities and lessons in delivering such campaigns in a country like Nigeria and internationally.

“I understand that there is going to be a great deal of emphasis on decentralisation – on really leveraging the decentralised nature of the Nigerian system and government to engage decision makers at the state and local government level, so that they can drive the very much action needed to speed up delivery of vaccines to the population.

“There will also be the need to expand the delivery capacity because at the same time the country is carrying out this important work, there is other work of delivering vaccines, responding to public health emergencies going on.”

The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, added: “Let me assure Nigerians that we have adequate stock of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, as we have over 30 million doses in stock. I call on all eligible persons that are yet to receive their vaccination to go to the nearest COVID-19 vaccination site and get vaccinated. This single dose offers the same protection you get from two doses of AstraZeneca, Pfizer Bio-N-Tech and Moderna vaccines.