The Federal Government said on Tuesday that about 812 health workers have been infected with the Coronavirus in the line of duty.
The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, who made the disclosure at the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 (PTF) in Abuja, however restated that the protection of health workers; especially those on the frontline of the pandemic remain a priority for the government.
He said the federal government would ensure the constant provision of personal protective equipment (PPEs), to shield health workers from exposure.
Ihekweazu said: “As we go further in the easing of the restrictions, I just want to remind all of us that the easing of the restrictions doesn’t mean the easing of the response. In fact, the public response is being strengthen.
“Crossing the 10,000 mark was quite a significant event, and every night when we work so hard to bring out those numbers, sometimes numbers begin to feel like what they are, that we forget that they are people behind each number.
“We have had 812 healthcare workers infected. They are not just numbers. Twenty-nine (29) of these work for the NCDC. They are people I know who have families, wives and children. About eight (8) of them right now are in the Idu treatment center. They are not just numbers but they are people and they matter and we must remember.
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“We have distributed over 40,000 pieces of complete PPEs and will continue to do this. By this weekend new consignment will be going out to every state, every Federal Medical Centres in the country.
“We now have the third highest number of confirmed cases on the continent just after South Africa and Egypt. It means that there is an added responsibility for us to work harder everyday.”
He added: “We have increased our testing capacity. We have now tested over 65,000 samples and increase our lab network to 30; having just activated the laboratories in Bauchi State and Abuja.
“60 percent of our cases are in 20 local governments. We have published these local governments with the new regulations with the new easing of restrictions. This means that we will focus a lot of our efforts on those 20 local government out of the 774, to prevent spread to others.
“We have deployed 37 Rapid Response Team with over 450 people that have left their homes for weeks on end, supporting the response across the country. We have sent over 100 million text messages through the support of MTN, Glo, 9Mobile and all the big Telcos.”
