Abia Government on Friday said it had trained disease surveillance and notification officers in all the 17 local government areas of the state, to identify and report any case of Coronavirus outbreak.
Dr. Chinagozi Adindu, the Executive Secretary, Abia State Primary Health Care Development Agency (ASPHDCA), disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Umuahia.
He said that the mechanism was one of the precautionary measures taken by the state against the pandemic disease.
Adindu said, “We have in every local government area a disease surveillance and notification officer and two assistants.
“They have the protective wares and test kits. Their duty is to move round the entire settlement, identify some of these cases and report back to us.”
The ASPHCDA chief executive said that the state had also trained health workers on some of those signs and symptoms so that they could report to the agency for prompt action, as soon as they dictated something.
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Adindu said that Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu had already inaugurated a powerful committee, chaired by the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Joe Osuji, to handle any outbreak in the state.
According to him, the government has set up isolation centres at the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia and another one at the General Hospital, Amachara.
He said that the government would soon open the third isolation centre at Abia State University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH), Aba.
“We also have been able to procure the test kits and we are going to distribute them to all the public health facilities.
“We are also taking them to public places so that people can use it to identify those that are suffering from the disease,” Adindu said.
He said that the agency had been sensitising the people on the need to watch their hands regularly and with sanitisers.
