Nigeria like most countries of the world is faced with an epic battle with the novel coronavirus, Covid-19. So far, the main strategy of the federal and many state governments is to initiate some sort of lockdown and try to test those that have strong symptoms and those that might have had contact with those confirmed positive with the virus.

Now, there is an undesirable consequence of this attempt to fight Covid-19 which is that the economy is practically grounded with millions of Nigerians that earn a daily income struggling to feed during the lockdown. To mitigate this and other undesirable consequences, it is important for us to initiate a system that allows us to rapidly identify those that have been infected or those that might be at a high risk of infection.

I propose that the federal and state governments invest heavily in call centres. Telecom companies and banks could be encouraged to make available staff of their call centres as well. Now, each of the call centre agents involved in this Covid-19 service would be trained to evaluate anybody calling with parameters that might indicate an individual is infected with the virus. Because a considerable part of our population especially in urban centres are tech savvy, web and mobile apps to replicate the call centre options can be used as well. I believe Kogi state is already using a form of this sort of app.

Citizens that suspect they are infected can have easier access to this preliminary screening to the call centres or app and those with high index of suspicion can be quickly identified and tested while urged to immediately self-isolate themselves. In addition, family and friends or neighbours of people suspected to be infected can also call the expanded call centres to give information and the symptoms they are observing in potential Covid-19 patients and their location. Field health workers that have been properly trained can then make house calls to check and test such suspected cases.

This collaborative and much more "crowdsourced" surveillance and testing regime can help identify cases faster and limit the spread of the coronavirus.

I believe if this is done with dedication over the next 3 weeks, Nigeria can begin to ease the lockdown and get people back to work while the elderly, those with chronic diseases and other vulnerable people can be encouraged to stay home because of the fact that they are at higher risk.

This process can be maintained until the number of those infected becomes negligible and we can hopefully return to the similitude of normalcy.

Source: http://opinions.ng/nigeria-technology-covid-19-lockdown/

cc: Lalasticlala, Mynd44

I suspect the imported Chinese Doctors are here to show us some secret cure.

A country that doesn't have roads and can't get electricity supply to it's citizens , that hasn't been able to scale the issuance of a simple National ID fro decades is supposed to do this ?

Which Network? Is It 3G, 4G, 5G Or 6G That Is About To Come.

GamalNasser:
A country that doesn't have roads and can't get electricity supply to it's citizens , that hasn't been able to scale the issuance of a simple National ID fro decades is supposed to do this ?

Yes, because it has made strides in mobile banking and telecoms that make the suggestions possible.

Is the lack of call center capacity by NCDC the reason why they haven’t been able to stop the spread of the virus?

It seems to me to that a shortage of test kits and suitably equipped laboratories, and a reluctance to test more people for fear of “wasting” money or increasing the number of confirmed cases is why we have failed to test and isolate enough people to stop or dramatically reduce the rate at which the virus is spreading.

The fact that our people are still interacting closely with each other without face-masks at hospitals and pharmacies, markets/shops selling food, filling stations, and ATM machines, which are all absolutely essential and cannot be locked down, isn’t helping. Face-masks slow the spread so that testing can catch up.

Seun:
Is the lack of call center capacity by NCDC the reason why they haven’t been able to stop the spread of the virus?

It seems to me to that a shortage of test kits and suitably equipped laboratories, and a reluctance to test more people for fear of “wasting” money or increasing the number of confirmed cases is why we have failed to test and isolate enough people to stop or dramatically reduce the rate at which the virus is spreading.

The fact that our people are still interacting closely with each other without face-masks at hospitals and pharmacies, markets/shops selling food, filling stations, and ATM machines, which are all absolutely essential and cannot be locked down, isn’t helping. Face-masks slow the spread so that testing can catch up.

This is Nigeria were every institution exercises autonomy to rig their own performances. The army rigs casualty figure. The education sector is open to selected award of excellence. Even the leaders are not left out in terms of performance. So I am not surprised if the NCDC decide to keep testing low in order to keep infection stats down.
If they are serious about fighting it, why cant they come out with their challenges, I am sure there are generous Nigerians who will willingly assist with billions of naira.

maclatunji:


Yes, because it has made strides in mobile banking and telecoms that make the suggestions possible.

mobile banking. you think they sit down in front of PC and code facemasks, testkits, ventilators or medication into existence. That's only possible in witchcraft, magic and spirit realm. We need concrete efforts and not some codes running on imported computers.

OP, Kano ran out of test kits.

Hundred thousand call centres will not help them.

Our problem started first because Buhari handlers were docile and treated the severity of this Virus with kid gloves.

To compound it, they read on Nairaland that nations are locking down and as usual, without even asking for clue on their plans on it, Buhari just locked down.

OP, our main problem is not call centres but trying to copy developed countries partially.

Enough testing kits and test centres with compulsory wearing of mask while maintaining social distancing all over the nation will reduce the spread.

Am only angry that Buhari Led FG are just suffering Nigerians because by the time people move to the street enmasse cos of hunger, this one month lockdown would just become useless.

CodeTemplar:
mobile banking. you think they sit down in front of PC and code facemasks, testkits, ventilators or medication into existence. That's only possible in witchcraft, magic and spirit realm. We need concrete efforts and not some codes running on imported computers.

What is the correlation between the article and this?

Seun:
Is the lack of call center capacity by NCDC the reason why they haven’t been able to stop the spread of the virus?

It seems to me to that a shortage of test kits and suitably equipped laboratories, and a reluctance to test more people for fear of “wasting” money or increasing the number of confirmed cases is why we have failed to test and isolate enough people to stop or dramatically reduce the rate at which the virus is spreading.

The fact that our people are still interacting closely with each other without face-masks at hospitals and pharmacies, markets/shops selling food, filling stations, and ATM machines, which are all absolutely essential and cannot be locked down, isn’t helping. Face-masks slow the spread so that testing can catch up.

We can now run 1,000 tests per day. The NCDC is now complaining of lack of samples to test. Testing capacity is increasing daily.

Widen the search net, identify potential cases faster, end the lock down in shorter time. The strategy is simple, leverage on existing capacity to address the problem.

The people in Kogi state are on to something, we can improve on what they are trying to do.

sapientia:
OP, Kano ran out of test kits.

Hundred thousand call centres will not help them.

Our problem started first because Buhari handlers were docile and treated the severity of this Virus with kid gloves.

To compound it, they read on Nairaland that nations are locking down and as usual, without even asking for clue on their plans on it, Buhari just locked down.

OP, our main problem is not call centres but trying to copy developed countries partially.

Enough testing kits and test centres with compulsory wearing of mask while maintaining social distancing all over the nation will reduce the spread.

Am only angry that Buhari Led FG are just suffering Nigerians because by the time people move to the street enmasse cos of hunger, this one month lockdown would just become useless.

Kano not Nigeria as a whole ran out of test kits. Complaining won't make Coronavirus go away.