As the number of Coronavirus cases increase in the country, it is high time that the current strategy by the government is reorganized and a more holistic plan instituted.
The number of cases now stands at 442 and community transmission now imminent; staggered lockdown in states and the non-usage of masks will hardly work against the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease. It is already evident that a combination of non-enforcement of social distancing, poor relief distribution and poor information dissemination has been the order of the day rather than the opposite. These are the reasons the current strategy by government must be reviewed and re-evaluated.
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With the way the response to the Coronavirus has been handled so far, it is evident that there is no robust cohesion between the parties concerned with managing it. The Ministry of Health, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigerian Center for Disease Control (NCDC), State Ministries of Health across the nation, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the organized private sector, Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, National Association of Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), philanthropists and other parties involved in response are hardly united in thought on how to attack the onset of this deadly virus. Equally important is the role of epidemiologists, virologists, statisticians and other medical researchers in stemming the tide of the Coronavirus. But not many of these professionals and bodies have been consulted or included in the larger picture of managing the crisis.
One of the loopholes which have been imminent in the current prevention strategy by the Presidential Task Force (PTF) team headed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, is the sudden switch on Wednesday when the NCDC said mask usage by the general population is now recommended. A subject as important as mask usage should have been in consideration by experts a long time ago, as it has helped countries like South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore greatly in controlling the pandemic. The Task Force should have gone on a production drive to ensure that every one of our 200million-strong population have masks in their hands.
Moreso, one would expect that the NBS, headed by the erudite Yemi Kale and the CBN would naturally be involved with the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development in the methodology and determination of who qualifies for what relief/palliatives for Nigerians. But the ministry and the minister in charge have just been flying blind with trial and error methods of determining who qualifies for what relief. Even more damning is the lack of tact in the sharing of these reliefs and palliatives. We need to do better as a nation.
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At some point, all of these professionals manning the various relevant government agencies and parastatals should normally have had a sit down with the Presidential Task Force to determine not just short term management of the Coronavirus pandemic, but also long term effect and recommendations to keep the nation afloat.
Already, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted that Nigeria is on a path to its worst recession in 30 years due to the pandemic. As a pragmatic nation, what behoves us is to avoid the negative impact as much as we can with the best brains the country has been blessed with.
These are the reasons why there is a need for an urgent review of the processes and our general approach to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Source:
The Guardian NG
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