Nigeria's House Of Representatives Summons NCDC Boss, Health Minister Over Strange Deaths In Kano

-

Nigeria's House of Representatives has summoned the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Director-General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Chikwe Ihekweazu, and Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, to appear and brief it on May 5 on government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its template for the intervention in all states of the federation.

This follows the unanimous adoption of a motion of Matter of Urgent Public Importance by Ado Doguwa (APC-Kano) at the plenary on Tuesday.

Doguwa said that index COVID-19 case was reported on February 27, 2020 in Nigeria and the country had so far recorded 1,337 confirmed cases of the virus, 40 deaths and 255 recoveries.

He said the Federal Government had released N5bn to NCDC to scale up capacity and strategise on a rapid response to the pandemic. 

The lawmaker expressed worry over the rising spate of unexplained deaths in Kano State in recent weeks where 77 COVID-19 cases had been recorded, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.

According to him, Kano being the most populated state of the federation, according to the National Population Commission, has only one testing centre.

The lawmaker said the centre had been shut down for about a week now,m due to lack of some testing materials and reagents.

He expressed concern that Nigeria had so far tested 10,918 of its estimated 200 million population whereas Ghana, South Africa and Egypt with much lower populations had tested 168,643, 100,622, and 90,000 of their people respectively.

Doguwa said Nigeria currently has a capacity for 3,000 tests in a day whereas South Africa has nearly 10,000 capacity per day.

He said Nigeria has only 15 testing centres, one each in Kano, Sokoto, Borno, Kaduna, Plateau, Oyo, Osun, Edo, and Ebonyi states, two in the FCT and three in Lagos.

“Convinced of the urgent need to arrest the rising cases of unexplained deaths in Kano and also scale up the national response to the Coronavirus pandemic, including the establishment of at least one testing centre in every state of the federation to save the nation from the scenario being witnessed in Kano, summon the DG NCDC, Minister of Health, and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force to appear before the House at plenary on Tuesday, May 5, 2020, to brief it on government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its template for the intervention in all the states of the federation.”

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nigerian higher institutions not prepared for virtual learning, say experts

-
Image
Mallam Adamu Adamu Unsure of how soon the Corona Virus pandemic will end, Minister of Education Mallam Adamu Adamu has directed vice-chancellors, rectors and provosts to reopen using virtual learning. But experts have argued that the nation’s education sector is not prepared for such, writes Head, Education Desk, IYABO LAWAL Worried about the continued closure of the nation’s higher educational institutions over the CoronaVirus pandemic, minister of education, Mallam Adamu Adamu has directed school administrators to switch to online learning. Unsure of how soon the COVID-19 will end, Adamu has opened talks with vice-chancellors, rectors and provosts on how to reopen using virtual learning. He directed all universities, polytechnics and colleges of education to activate virtual learning environment to enable students continue their studies through digital devices. He said although the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is on strike, the government will do its best to...
Read more

BREAKING: FG extends ‘gradual ease of lockdown’ by two weeks

-
Image
The eased lockdown directive issued by President Muhammadu Buhari has been extended till June 1. Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation, made the announcement during the presidential task force (PTF) on COVID-19 briefing on Monday. According to him, the president took the decision based on the recommendations of the PTF, and the guidelines issued for relaxing the lockdown in Lagos, Ogun and the federal capital territory (FCT) will be maintained for the next two weeks, after which there will be another review. He listed six steps approved by Buhari as follows: “The measures, exemptions, advisories and scope of entities allowed to reopen under phase one of the eased locked down, shall be maintained across the federation for another two weeks effective from 12 00 midnight today (18th May, 2020 to 1st June, 2020). “Intensifying efforts to “tell (communicate), trace (identify) and treat (manage)’ cases; “Elevating the level of community ownership of non-pharmaceutical ...
Read more

Breaking: Elon Musk makes History as SpaceX Finally Takes Astronauts to Space

-
Image
Readin  SpaceX founder Elon Musk was choked up with emotion after his company successfully launched astronauts to space for the first time on Saturday (May 30).  “I’m really quite overcome with emotion on this day, so it’s kind of hard to talk, frankly,” Musk said in a post-launch press conference at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida Saturday evening. “It’s been 18 years working towards this goal, so it’s hard to believe that it’s happened.” Musk’s comments came a few hours after SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the center’s historic Launch Complex 39A, carrying a Crew Dragon spacecraft with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on board.  By successfully launching its new Crew Dragon spacecraft with astronauts on board for the first time, SpaceX became the first private company to launch astronauts for NASA. The crewed test flight, called Demo-2, is also the first crewed launch from the U...
Read more