Anambra trains private health workers on COVID-19 management

The Ministry of Health, Anambra State, on Friday, organised a training for health workers in faith-based hospitals on proper case management of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Commissioner for Health, Vincent Okpala, while declaring the workshop open, said the training was to equip health workers with the requisite knowledge on ways to contain the virus in the state.

Mr Okpala said the government has mapped out the state’s COVID-19 chain of survival strategy to ensure early intervention in handling the virus.

Mr Okpala said, “There is a need for health personnel to step up their level of suspicion and identification of COVID-19 symptoms, which is the primary course of treatment and containment of the disease.

“That is why the government is training personnel to pass on the chain of survival strategy to all hospitals in the state.

“The training is necessary for prevention and care. It will enable the workers to understand safety measures, standard precaution and transmission-based precaution.

“This is part of the government’s efforts to ensure the state remained safe from the dreaded coronavirus.”

Mr Okpala added that the State COVID-19 chain of survival strategies were COVID-19 compliant.

He noted that early diagnosis and initiation of treatment by healthcare personnel, as well as early initiation of contact tracing, early notification of results and initiation of treatment were vital.

“We discovered that early recognition of symptoms was extremely important and if followed religiously, there would be no mortality rate.

“We have advised healthcare personnel to treat all symptoms of malaria at this point as COVID-19, until proven otherwise and this has helped people to survive.”

Kenneth Nwokolo, the head, Infection Prevention and Control, highlighted critical emerging issues in COVID-19 prevention, management and control.

Mr Nwokolo, a medical doctor, said “if the war against COVID-19 must be won, medical personnel must be one step ahead in the management and control of the disease.”

The total number of COVID-19 cases in Anambra State is 1,641 as of February 25, according to the data from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

Nineteen people have died so far from the viral infection in the state.

Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, remains the epicentre of the infection, with 55,381 COVID-19 cases, so far.

Four hundred and seven people have died so far in Lagos from the infection.

The total number of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria is 154,476 as of February 25.

(NAN)