The Federal Government has said that Lagos, FCT, Ogun, Kaduna, Sokoto
and Kano states have enrolled on the World Health Organisation (WHO)
treatment regimen on solidarity drug trials. The Minister of Health, Dr.
Osagie Ehanire, said this on Monday in Abuja, at the 29th joint
national briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19.
Daily
Trust reports that the WHO announced that Nigeria expressed interest to
be part of the global solidarity drug trial to tackle COVID-19 pandemic
and that the process would soon start in the country. The Officer in
charge, WHO Nigeria and member of the PTF on COVID-19, Dr. Fiona Braka,
told Daily Trust in an exclusive interview in Abuja that what Nigeria
signed up for was drug trial and not vaccine trial, as there was yet no
vaccine for the COVID-19.
According to her, the four drugs that
will be monitored in the solidarity trial are Remdesivir; Chloroquine or
hydroxychloroquine; Lopinavir, and Ritonavir. However, Ehanire said at
the briefing that the Federal Government is cooperating with the WHO on
treatment regimen Solidarity trial with the aforementioned states. He
also said that as at Sunday the country has ramped up testing by
additional 1,127 to make a total of 27,078 tests, which yielded 4,399
cases in 35 States, with a gender ratio of 70 to 30 percent for men and
women.
The minister said 778 persons have been discharged and
that the nation sadly recorded 143 deaths, giving a case fatality rate
of three percent.
“The new cases breakdown are Lagos 81, Jigawa
35, Bornu 26, Kano 26, Bauchi 20, FCT 13, Edo 12, Sokoto 10, Zamfara
seven, Kwara seven, Kebbi four, Gombe two, Taraba two, Ekiti two, Ogun
two, Osun and Bayelsa one each.
“Kogi and Cross River states
have not reported any cases, but we are optimistic that we can work with
the State Health Ministry to validate this in due course, when we
engage the state authorities. A team from the Federal Ministry of Health
(FMoH), made up of experts from various specialties, including NCDC, is
on standby to proceed to Calabar (Cross River) as soon as travel
arrangements can be made, taking with them, resource to support the
health system,” Ehanire said.
0 Comments