The residents of Abuja the Nation’s capital at home, were horrified, shocked, and infuriated by the recent news of the deadly Coronavirus cases, according to the latest breakdown by the NCDC, that has risen to 21 in Abuja.
The official interim report released by the minister of Health Dr Osagie Ehanire, claimed total of the three (3) cases in the FCT are being treated at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital (UATH), Gwagwalada while the while the Federal Government has said it is searching for 6000 persons who came in contact with the 111 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country even as it confirmed the second death from coronavirus (COVID-19).
Minister of Health, Dr Ehanire, announced recently, “Till date, three persons have been discharged after successful treatment. But sadly, another fatality was recorded over the weekend in the person of a patient who had severe underlying illnesses.
“We have intensified contact tracing and our strategy remains to promptly detect cases, isolate them, and follow up with their contacts and also isolate and treat, in order to reduce the spread of the infection.”
“As of today, March 30, 2020, we have recorded 111 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Nigeria of which 68 are in Lagos, 21 in the FCT, seven in Oyo, three in Ogun, two in Bauchi, two in Edo, two in Osun, two in Enugu, and one each in Benue, Ekiti, Kaduna and Rivers States,” Ehanire added.
He said; “We are tracking about 6,000 who came in contact with the 111 confirmed cases of COVID-19.”
He stressed that Nigeria has 111 confirmed cases of COVID-19, saying a majority of them were persons who came in from overseas.
According to the Health Minister, the highest number of confirmed cases are in Lagos and Abuja because they serve as the major gateways to the country.
He also informed the gathering that all retired but able-bodied staff of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and the Federal Ministry of Health were being recalled.
Ehanire warned Nigerians to protect the elderly among them, as well as those having underlying health issues as they were the most vulnerable.
However, the FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello had recently in the company of senior officials of the FCTA inspected a five story building that can serve as an isolation and treatment facility for COVID 19 patients.
The building, located at the Idu area of the FCT is a new training facility that can be modified to suit the purposes of a treatment and isolation center as required by the health authorities.
Malam Bello said that the building could be ideal as an isolation and treatment facility. In his words, “the most critical thing is that this place has a lot of space. We are talking of five floors. I don’t think the whole of Abuja will have a hospital facility that can accommodate up to five floors. More importantly, there is power here constantly, and there is adequate water supply.
“I leave it now for the officials of the Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and of course our public health officials. Jointly, they will decide what needs to be done here and we have a lot of commitment from the private sector organizations who are willing to support the national efforts to fight this disease. Once they all agree, I’m sure that within a very short period of time, this place can be made functional”
On the palliative measures being put in place to cushion the effect of the cessation of movement on the more vulnerable members of the society, the Minister said that the FCT Palliative Committee is headed by the Hon. Minister of State, Dr Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu and will be supported by the Chairman of the six Area Councils, traditional and religious authorities, NGOs and other support groups.
The Minister also said that the FCT already had modalities in place to identify the truly indigent members of society that will require assistance.
“The system of identifying vulnerable people within the FCT community is already in place, using the 60-ward structure of INEC, as well as the traditional and religious authorities.
Within every community, those that are vulnerable are known and also, under our Social Development Secretariat, we already have a database of vulnerable people that have been taken care of under the conditional cash transfer”.
The Minister revealed that authorities will tap into the data base of religious groups that already have records of the indigent in their various communities whom they have been assisting even prior to the current outbreak of Covid 19.
Despite the Federal government palliatives measure for residents of satellite and commuter towns and communities around Lagos and Abuja whose livelihoods will surely be affected by some of these restrictive measures, some residents said mr President’s speech fell short of specifics on the palliative reliefs to be provided to the most vulnerable segment of our society. Mr Balarabe Rabiu said “I would have expected to see in the presidential speech, the strategy and form the relief will take, and who will be the beneficiaries. “Again, he failed to use the speech to direct anti-corruption agencies to monitor the spending of the money,”
While on a sober mud some residents of Abuja said the invasion of this dangerous plaque has since denied them their daily hussling and earnings, others said they are anxiously waiting for government’s palliatives to cushion the effect on the lock down order early announced by the Federal government.
A resident of Kuje Mr Simon Shaban, said “I wish he did this earlier or the restriction came since last week. We hope to see full implementation of the directives especially on the distribution of palliatives like food to cushion the effect of this lockdown, because for most us that depends on a daily pay for survival what do we do now?” he asked.
The number of crime that may pop up during this period may be overwhelming simple because no palliatives have come to the vulnerables ones in our communities, how do we survive this even if the Federal government wants to prevent the virus from spreading accros the FCT atlist let them send even if it is ten thousand naira only to our individual account so that we can buy food stuff and sustain ourselves during this period” he said.
For Mr Mathias Ejembi a resident of Karu in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), discribed the period as ugly and hard time ahead of FCT residents, “for example I just catered for my son who had accident recently and critically lying on a sick bed of Asokoro General hospital. For every step I took in the area of transportation to this place increased dramatically. From Karu to Nyanya formerly we pay hundred naira but now if you even see a vehicle they charge you between four hundred to five hundred now so may God help us all to survive this”
