This Is Not A Joke; It Is A Matter Of Life And Death – President Buhari

BY CAMI EZENWA

President Muhammadu Buhari has described the ravaging coronavirus pandemic as not a joke but one of life and death and as such required stern measures.

President Buhari made the submissions this evening while delivering a nationwide broadcast during which he extended the ongoing lockdown in Lagos, Abuja and Ogun states by another two weeks.

Appealing to Nigerians to forebear the inconveniences and sacrifices of the lockdown, he said it was to sustain gains already made in containing the disease.

“We made this very difficult decision knowing fully well it will severely disrupt your livelihoods and bring undue hardship to you, your loved ones and your communities. However, such sacrifices are needed to limit the spread of COVID-19 in our country. They were necessary to save lives.”.

He also thanked Nigerians for the level of compliance with the social distancing, which e descried as generally good across the country, thanking traditional rulers, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) in particular, the business community, the country’s international partners and friends, as well as media houses and celebrities,  saying their understanding and support had made possible the achievement made within the first phase of the lock-down.

The president listed the gains made thus far to include the implementation of comprehensive public health measures that intensified  case identification, testing, isolation and contact tracing capabilities, adding that to date, the country has identified 92% of all identified contacts while doubling the number of testing laboratories in the country and raising testing capacity to 1,500 tests per day.

Other gains of importance as indicated by the president include -training of over 7,000 Healthcare workers on infection prevention and control and deployment of NCDC teams to 19 states of the federation; as well as increasing the capacity of Lagos and Abuja to admit 1,000 patients each across several treatment centres.

He also mentioned the provision by state governments for isolation wards and treatment centres, adding: “Already, health care workers across all the treatment centers have been provided with the personal protective equipment that they need to safely carry out the care they provide.

“Our hope and prayers are that we do not have to use all these centres. But we will be ready for all eventualities”, Buhari said.

The president said more measures to motivate health care workers were being worked out and would be announced in the coming weeks.

According to him,  as much as the nation was on the right track in terms of the fight, there were however concerns about the increase in number of confirmed cases and deaths being reported across the world and in Nigeria specifically.

”On 30th March 2020, when we started our lockdown in conforming with medical and scientific advice, the total number of confirmed cases across the world was over 780,000.  Yesterday, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases globally was over one million, eight hundred and fifty thousand. This figure is more than double in two weeks!

“In the last fourteen days alone, over 70,000 people have died due to this disease. 26. In the same period, we have seen the health system of even the most developed nations being overwhelmed by this virus.

“Here in Nigeria, we had 131 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in 12 States on 30th March 2020. We had two fatalities then.  This morning, Nigeria had 323 confirmed cases in twenty States.

“Unfortunately we now have ten fatalities. Lagos State remains the center and accounts for 54% of the confirmed cases in Nigeria. When combined with the FCT, the two locations represent over 71% of the confirmed cases in Nigeria.

“Most of our efforts will continue to focus in these two locations. 30. Majority of the confirmed cases in Lagos and the FCT are individuals with recent international travel history or those that came into contact with returnees from international trips.

“By closing our airports and land borders and putting strict conditions for seaport activities, we have reduced the impact of external factors on our country. However, the increase in the number of States with positive cases is alarming”, the president said.