By Yahaya Idris, Akwanga.
In an efforts to mitigate the spread of novel Coronavirus pandemic in Nasarawa State, the Commissioner for Ministry of Health, Hon. Pharm. Ahmed Baba Yahaya, has called for synergy between the Government and the private healthcare providers towards putting a formidable force against the deadly scourge ravaging the State and the country in general.
Pharm. Yahaya in a statement released by Mallam Musa Abdullahi, Public Relation Officer (PRO) of the Ministry on Tuesday, while attending a program for opening one day training workshop on infection, prevention and control on Covid-19 to private healthcare providers at Akwanga Model General Hospital.
According to Nasarawa Commissioner, Health Care Workers are vulnerable to infectious diseases as such they must adhere to universal protocol on prevention measures in order to make them safe for effective, quality service delivery to the people.” prevention is better than cure”.
He admonished the healthcare workers to sensitize their coworkers on the lessons learnt and to observed all preventive measures which includes, regular hands washing with soap and running water, use alcohol-based sanitizer, face masks, personal protective equipment (PPE) before and after attending to any patient among others.
He urged them to avoid been panic over the COVID-19 rather, said COVID-19 is real and deadly disease as such, we must stand to fight the scourge together for the good of all.
The Commissioner appealed to the people of various communities in the State to abide by the Government order on restriction of movement, avoid crowded areas as well as social gathering to curtail the spread of the virus in the State.
He therefore call on the general public to report any suspected case I using the Toll free Covid-19 Hotlines, 09010999945 and 09010999946, respectively.
The Commissioner however commended Governor Abdullahi A. Sule led administration for his commitment and willingness to complete the State own centre for disease control at the Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital (DASH), Lafia to enable the State have its centre for testing all kinds of infectious diseases or outbreak.
He said Nasarawa State Government has also put in place equipment to ensure the provision for adequate treatment of COVID-19 patients as well as all necessary measures to protect the people from contacting the virus through creating public sensitizatio, awareness, training of different categories of healthcare workers and duly screening of persons coming in through borders entry points, provision of personal protective equipment, hand sanitizers among others things.
He maintained that the State is capable of controlling and fight against the spread of the dreaded pandemic added that the government only needed support of all and cooperation of the private health care providers in the state to ensure people at various communities are safe.
Earlier, the Director Public Health and the Secretary of the State Task Force on COVID-19 Dr. Ibrahim Adamu Alhassan enjoin the private healthcare providers to adhere to universal precaution standard and protocol to make them safe so as to perform their duty optimally for the betterment of our people at this difficult time of going through Covid-19 pandemic.
He maintained that the training was to provide them with knowledge and skills on preventive measures and protocol to be adopted while handling patients at their various facilities in the state.
Highlights of the event was a physical training, features and demonstration on how to use Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), taken of sample, regular hand washing using running water and soap, use of alcohol-based sanitizer which were the basic skills of the training workshop.
