COVID-19: Chinese medicines to be certified by NAFDAC before use – Minister
The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, has anounced that the Chinese drugs brought into the country by the Chinese government for the fight against the coronavirus will be first cleared by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) before being used by Nigerians.
Furthermore, he explained that the purpose of the medical team from China is to provide technical support to our healthcare workers, especially on tactics and strategies they used to reduce the cases of coronavirus in their country.
The Minister disclosed this during the briefing by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, on Friday in Abuja.
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He said: “The team from China are under quarantine. We asked where they intend to observe the quarantine and they said they have a compound. So, we sent the NCDC to go and inspect the compound before they came.
“We also told them that every day the NCDC will have access whenever they like to come and inspect. So, that is what they have agreed to.
“Whatever it is that they brought will have to be certified by NAFDAC, also whatever medicines they brought. The medicines will be certified by NAFDAC before Nigerians will take those medicine”.
“Our main interest in these people is to see from a scientific point of view, what actually the processes were that they used in their country. What are the tactics that they applied? This is because if you want to know something, you ask somebody who has suffered it before.
“They have various lessons and learning that they have, we ourselves want these lessons. We want to know how they dealt with their problem It is part of our own preparedness to protect our people.
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“I have told them that even though they are in quarantine, they can join us by videoconference. This way, we can begin to ask questions already so that they don’t waste the period. So, as from next week, we will join by video conference so that we start asking them questions”.
“If we do offer an advisory around masks, it will be in addition to everything else; it will not be in place of it. So, we have to understand the reasons for these measures.
“We have one of the highest population density in the world and especially in Africa. Just four countries have a higher population density than us. This has the greatest implication for us and the transmission of viruses than just our numbers.
“It is our closeness to each other that really enables the virus to transmit from one to the other.
“Physical distancing is the most important to know whether we talk about wearing of masks, whether we talk about interruption of mass gatherings, whether we talk about any of the other interventions that we have suggested.
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“There are people that carry this virus without presenting symptoms. Critically, the most important thing is that people can be infectious two days before the symptoms appear. We call it the pre-symptomatic phase. While everybody has been talking about the asymptomatics, the most important are the pre-symptomatic.
“People that have become infected, will become symptomatic but don’t know yet because there in a few days before that has happened and that is why we have to increase the distance between us”.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), says the country recorded two more COVID-19-related deaths with 210 additional cases in the last 24 hours.
The NCDC, in its latest update on Sunday morning, said the cases were reported in 12 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
It indicated that the country’s total infection from the pandemic currently stands at 204,201 while the fatality toll increased to 2,673.
It also noted that six states – Benue, Kano, Nasarawa, Plateau, Sokoto and Zamfara – recorded no new cases.
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The breakdown shows that Lagos remains the nation’s epicentre of the virus with 79 cases, followed by Edo with 20 new infections and Anambra third with 19 cases.
Other states are Rivers (18), Ondo (15), Gombe (14), Oyo (13), Kaduna (11), Ekiti (8), Delta (6), FCT (5), Bayelsa (1) and Kano (1).
The NCDC stated with the new figure, a total of 192,421 patients have so far recovered from COVID-19 in the country.
It added that over 2. 9 million samples of the virus from the nation’s roughly 200 million population have been tested.
The NCDC noted that a multi-sectoral national emergency operations centre (EOC), activated at Level 2, continued to coordinate the national response activities.
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The agency stated that the number of active COVID-19 cases in the country stands at 9,098.
The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to give corps members health insurance cover during service.
The MoU was signed by the Executive Secretary of NHIS, Prof. Mohammed Sambo and the Director-General of NYSC, Brig.-Gen. Shuaibu Ibrahim, in Abuja on Tuesday.
Sambo said that it would ensure that corps members were integrated into the scheme to enable them to properly access healthcare during their service year.
“We are working on the presidential mandate on leaving no one behind in the health insurance scheme.
“So, today, it is big step to ensure that corps members are integrated into the scheme, this will expand coverage ratio of the scheme and also access to health facilities for corps members,’’ Sambo said.
According to him, for the purpose of continuity the corps members after their service year will enroll on what is called kinship programme.
He said that the corps members would migrate from the NYSC insurance to kinship where a token is paid and when they are employed they would join the formal sector programme.
Also speaking, the D-G of NYSC said that the MoU was in line with presidential directive that corps members should be enrolled in the scheme.
Ibrahim said that such directive showed that the government was concerned about the health of corps members in the country.
According to him, such gesture will encourage the corps members to carry out their service properly.
Ibrahim said that MoU would address the financial burden of the members in terms of health.
The Nigeria Centre For Disease Control (NCDC) says the country’stotal infection toll now stands at 195,052, with a fatality toll of 2,522.
The NCDC made this known via its verified website on Sunday morning, adding that Nigeria recorded 27more Coronavirus (COVID-19) related deaths and964new infectionsfrom 19 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) reports that the 964 fresh cases reported on Saturday indicated an increase from the 444 cases posted on Friday.
The public health agency noted that Lagos State, the country’s epicenter of COVID-19,reported 456; Ondo followed with 180, while Edo recorded the third highest infection with 66 cases.
The agency also noted that the country’s active coronavirus cases in Nigeria were 10,026,with a total of 182,463 cases successfully treated and discharged after recovery as of Sept. 4.
The NCDC said that over 2.7million samples of the virus out of the nation’s roughly 200 million population were tested.
The agency said that a multi-sectoral national Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) activated at Level two continues to coordinate the national response activities.
Meanwhile, the NCDC noted that with the recent surge of COVID-19 cases in the country, Nigerians must all do their part to help minimise instances of exposure.
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The agency stressed that every COVID-19 related death was a reminder of the damage COVID-19 could cause when it gets into thecommunity.
While urging Nigerians to get vaccinated, it stressed that the COVID-19 was causing severe illness in people of all ages.
The centre therefore advised Nigerians to get vaccinated now to protect themselves, their friends and community from the virus.
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