Minister of Health Dr. Osagie Ehanire said that over Nine thousand persons suspected to have come in contact with COVID-19 patients have so far been traced by the Nigerian Center for Disease Control, NCDC.
He made this known during the daily briefing by the Presidential Task Force in Abuja, adding that daily testing capacity has increased by activating more COVID-19 capable laboratories.
Dr. Ehanire noted that about 73% recorded cases are male and 27% female, the most affected age bracket is between 31-60 years.
“We have early evidence of community transmission already, which reinforces the urgency of physical distancing, use of face masks, maintenance of hand and respiratory hygiene, as well as strict adherence to the lockdown measures and regulations,” he said.
He stressed that these measures will reduce the risk of positive persons carrying the virus from place to place, especially those who are asymptomatic and may not know they harbor coronavirus.
“We have made significant progress in contact tracing and till date, followed up 9,029 persons of interest, 99% of whom have exceeded their 14-day observation period,” he added.
Dr. Ehanire stated that the treatment center accreditation team has set up guidelines for maintenance of operational standards that are to be used in all our isolation and treatment centres in public and eligible private health facilities.
He reminds Nlgerians to take utmost precautions as covid-19 is a highly transmissible disease with national security implications.
“We are gathering more epidemiological information on coronavirus disease, such as understanding sources of new cases and planning new lines of action. We shall continue to aggressively pursue our policy to detect, test and isolate cases.
According to him, the accreditation committee shall conduct random spot checks to ascertain the state of readiness of Isolation and critical care centers, improving testing capacity will not yield full value if it is not followed up with stricter follow up with Isolation.
He commend persons, organizations and groups in Nigeria who have put public and even their private facilities at the disposal of the Federal Ministry of Health to use as isolation and treatment centers, and in some cases, gone out of their way to renovate and equip such centers.
