AS Nigeria records 3rd CONVID-19: Let’s not push our luck too far, NASS warns as Doctors strike

 Senate Tuesday condemned the country’s poor preparation for the Coronavirus epidemic, warning the federal government not to push the nation’s luck too far. 

It equally expressed dismay that there were no testing centres for the whole of the North and the South-east regions.

 Senate President Ahmad Lawan said this while commenting on a motion about the disease on the floor of the Senate, and called on the federal government to do more in terms of preparations.

He said: “We are very lucky and fortunate, but we shouldn’t push our luck too far. We should be very observant of all those regulations the technical experts give us. There is need for federal government to do a little more, especially in the area of testing centres. The entire North and South-east have no testing centres and it shouldn’t be so.

“The federal government is supposed to do that, and we are prepared to support the federal government’s request is for money. Even for those established, we want to suggest that we continue to upgrade the standards.

 “Also, for isolation centres the state governments are building, the Ministry of Health should come out with a standard which will be replicated in all the states. So, we need to, through our committees, ensure we work with the ministry of health to work with the states to ensure the isolation centres are standardised.”

 Also speaking, Senator Ibrahim Yahaya Oloriegbe (APC Kwara Central), who introduced the motion through Order 43 of Senate standing rule, said there was need to be more serious and roll out more machineries on ground to combat the epidemic.

 He said “God has been very kind to Nigeria in view of the massive and devastating effects of Coronavirus globally but we don’t need to take anything for granted.” 

 Oloriegbe advised that “Nigerians need to increase the observance of the prevention control practices, including avoidance of shaking of hands.

 “If it is possible, people should not travel to countries with high risk of the cases, especially in Europe where many countries are affected, unless such trips are very important.”

 He suggested that “Nigeria should also consider disallowing non-Nigerians from countries of high risk from entering the country. Government should also increase capacity about checking airports. 

“Currently we have only five centres where testing can be done, the government has to step up the testing capacity and provide support for state governments.”

 He added that the virus spreads easily with not only body contacts, but shaking of hands, the very reason, he suggested, handshaking should stop for now. 

 He explained further that many people used to cough or sneeze on their hands, and contacts with such person, especially by handshake, could easily spread the virus.

 He therefore advised everyone to always wash their hands for at least 20 seconds at regular intervals.

 Reps want flights halted  

In a related development, members of the House of Representatives have called on the federal government to halt all flights from UK, Spain, Italy, the USA, China and South Korea where there were high cases of the dreaded coronavirus.

The lawmakers made the resolution Tuesday while adopting a motion of urgent national importance by Hon Onofiok Luke (Akwa-Ibom, PDP).

They also resolved that only Nigerian citizens to be tested on arrival should be allowed in and may be quarantined if necessary.

The federal government had announced that Nigeria had no plans on restricting any country’s nationals from entering the country.

 Minister of State for Health Olorunnimbe Mamora said instead, the country would be intensifying screening on passengers from eight countries – China, Iran, South Korea, Italy, Germany, Japan, France, and Spain.

 Mamora, who gave an update on the status of the disease in the country, said these eight countries were highlighted as countries with high risk of widespread community transmission, and that screening would be intensified on passengers from these countries.

Despite having high ongoing transmission and cases, the US and UK were not listed as part of the countries to undergo intensive passengers screening.

The US ranks eighth on the table of countries with the highest number of confirmed cases with 3,802 confirmed cases, while the U.K. ranks 10th with 1,391 confirmed cases following Switzerland.

But Japan which is on the list for intensive passengers screening to Nigeria ranks 17th with 840 confirmed cases.

Nigeria is one of the six African countries that had reported at least a case of Coronavirus on the continent.

Nigeria recorded its first case of Coronavirus on February 27, in an Italian businessman who had flown into the country for business.

He had spent two days within the country and visited Lagos and Ogun state before he fell ill and was diagnosed with Covid-19.

Hon. Luke’s motion was on the need for the federal government to postpone the national sports festival in Edo state and other large gatherings.

Buhari assures

But the federal government said it had foreseen the economic problems that may come in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and would explore all avenues to protect the people. President Muhammadu Buhari said this Tuesday at the State House Abuja during a briefing session by the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), led by Professor Doyin Salami.

With oil prices oscillating between 29 and 30 dollars in recent times, as opposed to the 57 dollars benchmark for year 2020 Budget, he said many variables, including production cost and political impact, determine oil prices “and we will see how to survive fallen prices, as we already envisaged the problem.”

He said protecting the people from the vagaries of international economic fortunes, and associated fallen prices of oil, was a priority of government, “and we will do our best to do so.”

Stressing the importance of education and healthcare, the president said if people were adequately educated, “they won’t accept any form of mismanagement by leadership, nor would they allow themselves to be manipulated by those promoting ethnic and religious sentiments.”

The president promised that inputs in agriculture, education and healthcare would continue as much as practicable.

In his briefing, Professor Salami painted sobering scenarios of what could happen to the Nigerian economy if the Covid-19 pandemic lasted for too long, including slower growth, as the supply and demand sides of global economy would be affected, uncertainty, which would erode confidence, governments acting unilaterally instead of cooperatively, further drop in oil prices, and lockdowns gaining grounds around the world.

He said there would also be oil glut, trade imbalance, drop in foreign reserves and rise in unemployment.

While saying many countries around the world may go into economic recession, the PEAC advocated hard work for Nigeria to keep its head above the waters.

He recommended, among others, a possible revision of the 2020 Budget, with priority spending on healthcare, reprioritisation of expenditure on infrastructure to focus on projects nearing completion with pro-poor effects, curtailing recurrent expenditure, mobilising the private sector to strengthen health sector infrastructure, and boosting of government revenue.

He said projections may seem dire, but the worst may be avoided with hard work and scrupulous implementation of policies.

…Orders Edo sports fiesta stopped

In a related development, President Buhari has directed the immediate suspension of the 20th edition of the National Sports Festival (NSF) in Benin City, the Edo state capital, Minister of Sports and Youth Development Sunday Dare has said.

The minister said this Tuesday while addressing State House correspondents after he briefed the president   in company of Minister of State for Health Olorunibe Mamora. 

“Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the Ministry of Youths and Sports Development because of the Edo 2020 National Sports Festival, has been in close touch and consultation with the ministry of health – particularly with both the minister of health and the minister of state, health. We’ve also been in consultation with the governor and deputy governor of Edo State, the Local Organising Committee (LOC), and the Ministry Organising Committee (MOC) but we have had the ministry of health take the lead. 

“Base on daily review on development, we got assurances that we could go ahead. But because we are dealing with a dynamic situation, this morning, we had a meeting at the ministry of health in the office of the minister of health with the minister of state, health present, myself, the permanent secretary and the Director General of National Center for Disease Control (NCDC). 

“Shortly after the meeting which lasted for about 45 minutes, we proceeded to the presidency to brief Mr President. After briefing Mr. President, Mr President took the initiative and gave the directive that the National Sports Festival, christened Edo 2020 should be postponed as a precautionary measure against the press of COVID-19. A new date will be communicated late based on development around COVID-19,” he said.

Also speaking, Minister of State for Health Mamora said each country was at liberty to take decision in its best interest.

“If the situation happening thereafter, dictates that certain action be taken, we would not hesitate to take such and so it was against that background that we also had a meeting this morning with the minister of youth and sports and we felt that in the overall interest of Nigerians and national health security, it is better to err on the side of caution and therefore, we conveyed to Mr President our thought and Mr President thereafter kindly agreed that it was best for us to have this postponement,” Mamora said.

Doctors begin strike

And in the midst of this challenge, medical doctors in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city Tuesday declared an “indefinite strike.”

The decision was announced by the Abuja chapter of Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), barely one hour after the third case of Covid19 was confirmed in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital.

In a statement by its president, Dr. Roland Aigbovo, the association said the decision followed the failure of the FCT administration to pay them their basic salaries for more than two months.

The statement said members extensively deliberated on the health threat posed by the coronavirus scare, their work conditions, and patient care before arriving at what it called the “difficult decision.”

Aigbovo said ARD members were already thrown into financial distress due to the non-payment of their salaries and that despite repeated warnings and ultimatum, nothing had been done by the concerned authorities.

The association further said its members had been experiencing salary irregularities and shortfalls since the migration to the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) by the FCTA. 

He assured that other health workers also affected by the salary shortfalls would join the mass action within 48 hours if their demands “which are the same with ours are not met.”    

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