Follow Us on Google
Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Federal Government, said on Friday, that it has disbursed N100 million to each of the 36 states and FCT through the Regional Diseases Surveillance Enhancement (REDISSE) Project to boost their response activities in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to that, the government said that funds would also be pulled out from the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) soon to support states respond to the pandemic.
Minister of health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, in a statement released in Abuja, on Friday, registered his optimism that the intervention will enhance high impact priority response activities at the state level.
He appealed to states to use the funds for the purpose it was provided and not divert it to other use which might unfavorable response from the government.
The Minister however expressed concern over the spike in community transmission of COVID-19, as according to him, “We can rightly assume from the exponentially increasing numbers, that the pool of potentially infectious persons in the community, is rising and with that, the risk of infection for citizens at all levels of society, since a very significant number of persons testing positive is not in observation or treatment.”
He, however, commended persons of influence in society, who tested positive for COVID-19 and came out publicly to declare it, and entrust themselves to prescribed treatment.
He added: “They do us good by showing that there is no shame and nothing to hide about COVID-19, and they also contribute immensely to building confidence in the Health System.”
The Minister also revealed that the COVID-19 cases recorded daily over the past weeks fluctuates within the 500 to 700 bracket, with 543 new cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed in Nigeria so far to 38,344, of which 15,815 were successfully treated and discharged.
“We have regrettably recorded 813 fatalities, mostly with co-morbidities and tested a total of 247,825 persons in all”, he said.
