Covid 19 war - The ideal approach

By - Akubude Jesse

We are under war situation but this war is not war against nations but war against microbes

The Coronavirus started in China in November of 2019 and have managed to enter almost every country of the world killing people with recklesss abandon.

Nigeria have not been spared as we have recorded over 4000 confirmed cases according to NCDC

The Coronavirus does not spare anyone whether High class or low class, Christian or Muslim . So this is a war we have to fight together .

A disturbing report by Premium Times shows that Nigeria had only 350 Ventilators prior to the arrival of the virus has shown how ill equiped our health facilities are.

At this point, we should dwell more on the solution rather than the problems. The virus can be transmitted by asymptomatic patients and that is the most worrisome of all the Covid-19 stories.

With Support from Cooperate Organisation,well meaning Nigerians, International organisations, Countries and Companies we should have reasonable resources to combat the Virus.

At a situation like this , dealing with a highly infectious virus , the first thing the government would have done was to close our National borders. Also, the state government was supposed to Close inter-state borders .

The virus doesn't move but people move the Virus. The effect of a lockdown was examplified in the discipline the Chinese Government and the people of Wuhan showed in locking down movement.

Wuhan the epicenter of this virus now recording no new cases over sometime now.

The adherence of the lockdown is very important as checks should be put In place to curb elements in law enforcement who might want to compromise the restrictions for some benefits.

The next thing we should do is an immediate sensitisation of the people no matter where they are and their level of exposure and education.

Text messages should be sent to everyone who has a mobile line in Nigeria . The relevant authorities should run sponsored Adverts on Social Media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and even on the fast growing tiktok .

With the lock down in place, alot of people will be stuck with their devices and sponsored Adverts of both Video and text and Infographics format would help send the message to everyone on what to do at this point.

As for the traditional ways of information decimation, Television stations should run regular Adverts and sensitisation programs as well as Radio stations.

The print media Should not be left out as Newspaper Adverts should also be run by necessary authorities.

Media houses should be encouraged to talk more about the situation while village heads should be mobilized all over the country by government to run a town cryer sensitisation.

Government must provide adequate Sanitisers and Facemasks distribution to the populace as well as encourage them to wash their hands regularly as a better alternative.

There should be education on "do's"and "don't" which should include discouraging smoking and drinking of alcohol and encouraging exercise and eating healthy all in a bid to boost immune system of the populace in general.

Government must ensure that salaries are paid as well as palliative packages are distributed to the communities as the Lockdown would affect livelihood and hunger which can worsen immune system . The Government must ensure transparency in distribution of the matterials as well as help companies who can no longer pay their workers by subsidizing the salaries the companies pay their worker.

The Government should restrict bussineses to essential ones and enforce compliance by using local village task force set up by Communities and police if necessary.

The Next way Nigeria should react is immediate setting up of Isolation centers all over the Country , battle ready for the cases. The Isolation centers should be equiped with necessary materials especially Ventilators and Personal protective equipments (PPE) etc.

Health workers should be given protective wears as a random person who might have Contracted the Virus might show up to a particular hospital and could infect the health workers there.

The Government authorities should provide adequate training logistics for both health workers and paramedics to make sure they are upto date in measures necessary to make use of the equipment and also protecting themselves.

Nigerian authorities should ramp up testing for the Covid-19 by setting up diagnostics centers in atleast all states of the federation. The Government should Also provide rapid diagnostics kits which can increase the turn around time for a complete testing of the patients.

The Government should in all states create atleast a drivethrough and walk through testing centers for testing of random people and not only when patients have developed symptoms or have been in contact with a confirmation case.

The Government must surport efforts to create a Vaccine and drug for the disease by funding Our scientist to join in the search for a lasting solution to this deadly virus.

The Government should maintain a quick and open communication channel with World Health Organization (WHO) and coordinate different relevant National health agencies like Nigeria center for Disease Control (NCDC) and Ministry of Health with different state ministries of health to achieve synchronized and coordinated actions

With strict adherence to these models , Nigeria should be able to eradicate the virus and move on with our normal lives.

We will win this war but the question is the amount of damage it would cost us .

The prevention of diseases is better than the cure and no matter how much we spend to ramp up prevention of infectious diseases, the cost is always cheaper than the effect of a full blown outbreak.

What we must do as a Country to prevent this situation in the future is very important. We must not wait for war before we start buying weapons.

We need to improve Health infrastructure all over the Nation starting from primary health care to Tertiary Health institutions.

Of the total N9.45tn budgeted for 2020 by the Federal Government, N427.3bn (4.5 per cent ) was allocated to health which fall short of the 15% of total budget required by United Nations for health.

The Coronavirus even overwhelmed countries with modest health infrastructure let alone Nigeria with a decayed system .

We need more hospital beds than needed in a normal situation, we need more ICU units than needed in a normal situation.

We need more Doctors and health workers. The NMA says there are only 40,000 doctors in an estimated populationof 196 million. The latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO) reveals that Nigeria's physician-to-patient ratio is four doctors per 10,000 patients and patients often wait hours to be seen. This must improve

This should serve as a wake up call for our leaders as the reality now is that everyone is stuck with the infrastructure on ground in Nigeria including our Medical tourist leaders.

The strong Medical facilities will enable mothers to give birth safely and and kids getting all necessary vaccines.

Doctors and other health workers welfare should be of utmost importance to avoid continuous brain drain and mass Exodus of our health workers in search of greener pastures.

We should enact germ games as way of testing our preparedness for any outbreak. We often see our Military do some preparatory game for future battles eg operation python dance. We don't ever think that epidemics are like war situations . To this end , we need to recreate simulations to check how best to tackle situations like this and evaluate progress and short commings in tackling infectious diseases.

We need a standby Medical Corp with people who are ready for Medical situations having necessary expertise attached to military units and facilities for better logistics during danger periods like quick movement with helicopters and boats to remote areas .

We should stockpile vaccines of all possible diseases available even when they don't pose immediate threats like the vaccines of the already eradicate small pox.

We need to step up Medical research facilities to aid with quick and effective response to Development of Vaccines and drugs. Our research centers should be up to date with necessary technologies to help our scientist work more efficiently.

We also need to Step up Medical Diagnostic Centers and equipping them with necessary materials that would be needed to diagnose any disease at the shortest possible time.

National economic situations should be improved so people could live healthy and afford medical facilities while affordable health insurance schemes should be provided to help cushion heavy cost individuals need to pay to have quality Health care.

A toll free single emergency number should be provided with quick response time and complaint redirected to state disease control system for prompt actions to Investigate and act on the emergency.

We can always be on Top of any such situation if we get our acts right.


Source
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2660328430866411&id=2381598098739447

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