By Asmau Ahmad
The Federal Government has warned Nigerians against complacency in containing the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, saying the vaccines against the virus might not be available in Nigeria as quickly as expected.
The Minister of State for Health, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, stated this on in Abuja, at the joint national briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19.
Senator Mamora said that though government was working very hard to get vaccines for Nigerians, it might not come soon enough.
The minister spoke through the Director of Hospital Services, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Adebimpe Adebiyi.
“We need to be alive to get the vaccines when they come. I have brought this up to underscore the importance of compliance with non-pharmaceutical measures as advised to reduce transmission,” he said.
The minister added that as of Wednesday, new cases recorded were 1,354 with one death; while the total number of cases tested was 1,004,915.
“Number of confirmed cases is 94,369, active cases stand at 15,764, while discharged cases till date are 77,299 and number of deaths till date is 1,324 with case fatality rate of 1.4 percent.
“The Federal Government is determined to ensure morbidity due to COVID-19 is reduced to the barest minimum while improving on the fatality rate,” Mamora said.
He said that appropriate measures were being taken to achieve these objectives.
According to him, a second phase assessment of the isolation and treatment centres country-wide to verify challenges was to be carried out immediately, to enable government to provide appropriate intervention measures required to strengthen the centres.
“We will continue to appeal to states to increase testing and contact tracing. The cooperation of the states with the federal authorities is critical to our collective objective of defeating COVID-19,” he added.
