The Nigerian Government says the increase in the rate of confirmed cases of COVID-19 is due to lack of adherence to medical advisories.

Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire said this at the daily joint Media briefing, by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, in Abuja, Nigeria.

He said if citizens were determined to take ownership of, and the responsibility for reducing the spread of the virus, the number wouldn’t have been dramatic.

“I emphasize again that conscientious wearing of masks is being confirmed in various studies, as the easiest, cheapest and most reliable way to check the rate of spread. Some countries have made it mandatory by law and imposed a fine for non compliance.”.

“Regular washing of hands, avoiding crowds, social distancing and use of minimum of 65% alcohol based sanitizers remain as relevant as at the beginning,” he cautioned.

The Minister noted with satisfaction the successful engagement between the17 man team of the Federal Ministry of Health that was deployed to Calabar to engage with the Cross River State government in setting up their covid19 response and aligning it with the national response.

He was pleased to announce that Cross River State is now aligned with the Federal Ministry of Health COVID-19 response and has started reporting on the national dashboard.

“They had useful interaction with the Cross Rivers State government and were able to address all areas of concern and interest to the Federal Government and also to the Cross river State Government. The Federal Ministry of Health will encourage and prioritize patronage of locally made commodities which meet the minimum specification”.

“We have activated the GeneExpert machine at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital to increase testing capacity in the state and NCDC has resumed deployment of rapid response teams to provide technical assistance to their Public Health EOC to strengthen their incident management system,” he announced. (Text, excluding headline, courtesy VON)

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