By Janet John, LAFIA
Nasarawa state government, Thursday, said the state is winning the war against COVID-19 as record of COVID-19 cases per day has drastically reduced.
Ahmed Baba Yahaya, a pharmacist and the state Commissioner of Health reiterated this while commemorating the World Health Day in Lafia, the state capital.
The commissioner disclosed that so far, 2,364 COVID-19 cases and 29 deaths have been recorded in the entire state.
Baba, who was impressed by the development, said that recently the state goes days without a single case of COVID-19.
“Even some days we don’t have a single case, and that’s a good omen. And with vaccinations we are winning the war, and we believe in the near future, not far from now, the state and the nation will be declared free.
PROMPT NEWS reports that over 50% of the Oxford- AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines have been administered so far.
Yahaya, while noting that restrictions and limitations in the administration of the vaccine have been quite limited, said that frontline workers, political leaders, those above 50 years , those with underlying health conditions such as diabetes and hypertension are given priority in the administration of the vaccines as they are more prone to the virus.
The commissioner called on pharmaceutical companies to expand their manufacturing capabilities to address the current shortage of COVID-19 vaccines.
He lamented that out of 548 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines doses administered worldwide, only 11 million doses or 2% have been sent to Africa, whereas the continent accounts for 17% of the global population.
Yahaya, who decried the shut down of Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital (DASH) Lafia, due to nationwide strike embarked on by doctors, assured that residents can still access health care in any of the Primary Health Care Clinics across the 13 local government areas of the state.
“The strike only affects DASH, where residency and other activities are on hold. But for our secondary facilities at the primary health care, they are fully armed and they are working 24 hours, and this covers about 80% of the population of this state.
The health commissioner said that the state government is liaising with health workers to come to an agreement on hazard allowance and other welfare packages for health workers to avoid strike action or anything that will disrupt quality health care services.
“The state government is already aligned with coalition of health workers where the doctors are also inclusive to discuss final resolutions that hazard allowance will be and what it will contain.
