Sen. Olorunnimbe Mamora, Minister of State for Health, has expressed worry over the resurgence of COVID-19 infection in health workers.
Mamora said this during the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 on Thursday in Abuja.
”We are concern by the resurgence of infection in healthcare workers”.
“In a bid to sustain the gains made in reducing the rate of infection, we have trained and retrained health workers on infection prevention and control,” he said.
The minister said that in Abia, the task force has concluded the training of 594 healthcare workers from private and public health facilities on infection prevention and control.
“We are currently investigating healthcare associated infection in a facility in Kaduna State. Lessons learnt from this will be used to improve service delivery,” Mamora said.
He urged health workers to be more careful, saying, “I encourage the health workers not to drop their guards as the pandemic is still with us”.
He also stressed the need to use PPEs appropriately and judiciously and that the equipment have been provided in all health facilities.
The minister called on youths to be more careful and take adequate precautions against COVID-19 as the pandemic has had its impact on young people.
‘”As at Wednesday, 46 per cent of positive cases in the country are young people between ages 21-40.
‘”I will, therefore, appeal to youths to take responsibility. Let us ensure that we adhere to the advisories to wear face masks appropriately, regular hand wash and ensure respiratory hygiene,” he said.
The minister further emphasised that the target remained to test one per cent of population across the country.
‘”As at today, more than 70 per cent of all the tests conducted have been in nine states namely; Lagos, Kano, FCT, Plateau, Oyo, Kaduna, Edo Ogun Rivers with 25 per cent of the tests in Lagos alone,” he said.
Mamora promised that the team would continue to work with state governments to ramp up case findings and sample collection activities.