By CHARLES IWUOHA

The General Officer Commanding (GOC) of 82 Division of the Nigerian Army, Maj-Gen Lasisi Adegboye, has tasked military medical personnel on case identification and notification on COVID-19 cases.

Adegboye gave the task while inaugurating a COVID-19 Case Management/Infection Prevention and Control Training for members of medical team of the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) on Saturday at the Division in Enugu.

He urged the participants to be attentive and learn as much as they could “as it is a train-the-trainers programme”, which means each participant has to train his or her other colleagues in various medical formations in the AFN.

“The training you are about to undergo is designed to improve the knowledge and capacity of participants to respond appropriately to service delivery and safety concerns during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“However, due to the rising cases of COVID-19 across the states in the federation, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) in his wisdom deemed it appropriate to train additional medical personnel in selected hospitals across the AFN. This is meant to boost our response capacity in the management of the pandemic.

“It is also intended to guide participants on how to effectively protect themselves and families as well as patients or clients from contracting COVID-19 while rendering basic healthcare services to the barrack community and general public at large.

“Above all, the training you are about to acquire, will also enable you as participants to contribute your quota to COVID-19 surveillance and containment through prompt identification and notification of cases,” he said.

The GOC, however, thanked the CDS for approving and hosting the training at the Division.

The participants, who are numbering 42, were drawn from the Navy, Air Force and Army medical hospitals in AFN formations within the South-East.

The training is facilitated by a lead resource person, Wing Commander Mary Atang, Training Officer, Ministry of Defence.

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