Coronavirus: 20 per cent of tests returns positive - PTF

Nigeria's Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire has cautioned that the country's increasing coronavirus positive cases are worrisome.

He stated that 10,300 confirmed cases were reported from 50,750 samples tested last week. This translates to 20 per cent positivity rate.

“It means one out of every five persons tested in the last one week turned out positive, compared with the previous week, which recorded a positivity rate of 14 per cent.

“Nigeria’s total number of confirmed cases is 110,387 out of a total of 1,172,234 samples tested, with a cumulative positivity rate of 9.4 per cent. 1,444 cases were recorded in the past 24 hours, with sadly 77 deaths in the past week and total fatality of 1,435,” the minister said during a briefing by the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 Control in Abuja on Monday, January 18, 2021.

“It is instructive of the second wave that cases recorded so far this January (barely halfway through the month) are more than 20 per cent of all confirmed cases in December.

“There is no doubting the fact that we are deeply into the second wave of the pandemic, which requires that PTF and Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) review our strategies to respond to the challenge.

“The Federal Ministry of Health has outlined three approaches to confront the pandemic. These are infection mitigation, therapeutics and vaccines,” he continued.

Ehanire recapitulated that the easiest aim of the government in fighting the virus is to reduce its infection rate.

According to him, government’s main effort is to ensure social mobilisation for testing, strengthening surveillance activities for early detection, active contact tracing, isolation and treatment.

“This includes much more adherence to wearing masks, social distancing, use of sanitiser, etc. than we are seeing today. Of special concern are the so-called “super spreader activities” that involve congregational settings, which must be reduced, restricted or prohibited in the interest of the common good.

“With regards to therapeutics, we must strive to reduce mortality from this disease by ensuring adequate stock of supplies and strengthening our case management capacity.

“The ministry of health is working to expand oxygen availability across the country to address shortages, which have been a challenge globally, and also to review the value of various pharmaceuticals and protocols proposed for COVID-19 treatment.

“Clinicians are also urged to work out guidelines for participating in clinical studies.

“The Ministry of Finance has released N10 billion to support domestic vaccine production.

“While we are working to develop our own vaccines, Nigeria is exploring options for licensed production, in collaboration with recognised institutions. We are also exploring the option of local production of the vaccines in the country.”