By Apart from the global efforts to find a cure or vaccine for
COVID-19 pandemic ravaging the world since November 2019, Nigeria is making
efforts to find local remedy for the treatment and cure of Coronavirus.
The Minister of State for Health, Dr.
Olorunnimbe Momora disclosed this during the Presidential Task Force on
COVID-19 Press Briefing of Wednesday, 27th May, 2020. He stated
that the Federal Government has received few proposals for local remedies for the
disease and these have been forwarded to the relevant agencies for evaluation.
Dr. Mamora recalled that last week, the Federal
Ministry of Health’s team held a virtual meeting with Traditional,
Complementary and Alternative Medicine Practitioners (TCAM), to discuss and
explore opportunities for local solutions to the COVID-19 Pandemic. “The
meeting provided an opportunity for the practitioners to understand the
procedures for validating medicines for use in the country.” He assured
TCAM that Government would support every genuine efforts aimed at finding
solutions to the pandemic.
The Minister said that Government’s response
strategy is based on trace, test isolate and treat. “Today I shall focus on our
isolation and treatment strategies. As at this morning, we have recorded a
total of 8,344 confirmed cases in 34 states and FCT out of which 2,385 have
been successfully treated and discharged. Unfortunately we have recorded 249
deaths. While most of those who die are associated with co-morbidities, we find
that 3 out of 4 of those who have been discharged were without co-morbidities”,
the minister disclosed.
He further stated that there is general
reduction in mortality trend and continuous improvement in recoveries as shown
in discharges compared to the increase in number of confirmed cases, though he
said he is not surprised about the increasing number of confirmed cases because
very high cases could seriously exceed the capacity of our health system to
cope.
Continuing, Dr. Mamora said that at present,
Nigeria has a total of 112 treatment and isolation centers in all the 36 States
and FCT with 5,324 beds, while only five states including the FCT have at least
300 beds as prescribed for isolation and treatment; 21 States have less than
100 bed spaces. He informed that as the number of confirmed cases increases,
there is an urgent need to expand our treatment centers across the
country. The Minister therefore called on the State Governors and
philanthropists to take active and deliberate steps to scale up the number of
beds for isolation and treatment of confirmed cases in their States.
Mamora said Nigeria is preparing to move into
the next phase of the response, including the easing of the lockdown, having
conducted a high level technical session on strategic outputs of Mid-Action
Review (MAR) and identified priority activities for the next phase of the
response, adding that Government has commenced development of sector specific
advisories on re-opening, while training of health workers on case management
is ongoing in more States.
Dr. Mamora stated that the Federal Government is
anxious to find a cure for COVID-19, but would not compromise the health of any
Nigerian to do trial and error. Whatever is approved for use in Nigeria
must meet the required standard as determined by the relevant agencies. He
advised against crowding up as this increases the risk of transmission.
“Prevention is still the best approach to containing the virus”, the Minister
stated.
