In Ogun, more schoolgirls are getting pregnant | See other #COVID19 updates across Nigeria
The Ogun government Wednesday, decried the increasing rate of teenage pregnancy among school girls following the shutdown of schools as a result of the outbreak of coronavirus.
The state’s Commissioner for Health, Dr. Tomi Coker, who disclosed this while speaking with journalists in Abeokuta, the state capital, urged parents to encourage their children visit the teenage units of primary health centres in the state for counselling and advice from health professionals.
Nigeria’s inability to meet medical items worries minister
Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, has lamented the country’s inability to meet its need of simple medical equipment like plaster, cotton bandage, face masks and surgical gloves required to fight the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Speaking at the inauguration of the Governing Council of the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) Wednesday in Abuja, Ehanire observed that the outbreak of COVID-19 brought to the fore the vulnerability of the nation as it concerned medicine security.
Don’t re-open schools, worship centres yet
The decision by the Lagos government to suspend, indefinitely, the planned re-opening of schools, places of worship and entertainment centres should simply be regarded as a judicious move in the light of the rising cases of COVID-19. Despite pressure from various quarters persuading the state government to re-open schools and religious places, this bold pronouncement of the Lagos government is a clear demonstration of authority and thoughtful leadership amid crisis.
As new cases of the disease are being established and escalation detected with increased testing nationwide, other states of the federation should emulate the Lagos government by maintaining the lockdown on schools, worship centres and schools where it is so, and effect a lockdown where schools and worship places have resumed activities.
‘Testing is our weakest response’
The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu has said that testing for COVID-19 remains one of the weakest parts of Nigeria’s response to combating the deadly pandemic.
Ihekweazu, who spoke on Wednesday in an interview on a TV programme, said his agency is working aggressively to increase the testing across the country, especially in line with its ambitious target to test two million people in three months.
Patient who fled isolation centre ‘infects workers’ at Plateau hospital
A private hospital in Plateau, Rayfield Medical Services Limited, has been reportedly shut down over breach of COVID-19 protocol.
According to PUNCH, the private hospital was closed on the orders of the state task force on COVID-19 after it was discovered that an infected patient who had earlier absconded from one of the state’s isolation centres was being treated at the hospital.
