Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The House of Representatives, yesterday, passed for second reading a bill to repeal the Quarantine Act 2004 and enact the Control of Infectious Disease Act.
The bill, sponsored by Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila and two others, seeks to empower the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in combating infectious diseases in the country.
Gbajabiamila, in his lead debate, explained that the bill was intended to give more power to the NCDC and make it more proactive in tackling infectious diseases. He noted that, at the moment, the NCDC was more or less reactive in the discharge of its functions.
“What the NCDC can do now is reactive. This bill allows the NCDC to be proactive. It also imposes a duty on medical practitioners to provide information on suspected cases to the NCDC DG. It also gives the DG power to order for vaccination when there is outbreak of disease. The penalty for violation in the Quarantine Act range from N100 to N500, that tells you how old the act is. The bill raises the fine from N200,000 to N5 million, depending on the gravity. The bill seeks to empower the NCDC to do its job better,” the Speaker said.
However, moves to take the bill through the Committee of the House and third reading, at yesterday’s plenary, did not scale through as some lawmakers argued that there was no point to rush through it.
Meanwhile, the House has charged the NCDC to take steps to establish COVID-19 testing centres in the 774 local government areas, to scale up its testing capacity.
It also resolved to invite the Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF) and chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, and the director-general of the NCDC, Chikwe Ihekweazu, to brief it on the fight against the pandemic and government’s template for intervention in all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
The House urged the Federal Government to give an intervention fund to Kano State as was done for Lagos and the FCT, to enable it tackle the rising cases of COVID-19 infections in the North-West state.
The Green chamber equally charged the Kano State government to urgently conclude investigation into the mysterious deaths recorded in the state in the last one week to ascertain the causes. This was after the unanimous adoption of a motion of Matter of Urgent Public Importance by Ado Doguwa (APC: Kano) at plenary yesterday.
Doguwa recalled that index COVID-19 case was reported on February 27, 2020, in Nigeria and the country has so far recorded 1,337 confirmed cases of the virus, 40 deaths and 255 recoveries.
Doguwa said the Federal Government had released N5 billion to NCDC to scale up capacity and strategise rapid response to the pandemic.
The lawmaker expressed worry over the rising spate of unexplained deaths in Kano State in recent weeks, where 77 COVID-19 confirmed cases had been recorded.
Doguwa said Nigeria currently has a capacity for 3,000 tests in a day whereas South Africa has nearly 10,000 tests capacity per day.
He said that Nigeria has only 15 testing centers one each in Kano, Sokoto, Borno, Kaduna, Plateau, Oyo, Osun, Edo, and Ebonyi State, two in the FCT and three in Lagos state.
The House urged the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency and priority scale up the nation’s COVID-19 testing capacity.
The lawmakers urged the NCDC to adopt creatively proactive modern approaches and technologies in the management of COVID-19 pandemic
The green chamber called for the establishment of a testing centre in each Local Government Area of the Federation.
Speaker Femi Gbejabiamila approved an investigation into the immediate and remote causes of the unexplained huge number of deaths in Kano State.