The Nigerian government has urged its citizens to take ownership of the initiatives for nonpharmaceutical interventions against coronavirus with strict adherence to public health advisories.

The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, said this on Wednesday in Abuja, at the 22nd joint national briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19.

This is as he also said that as of Wednesday, 29th April, 2020; 1,532 people have been confirmed to have COVID-19. The minister said a record 825 tests were done with 195 new cases identified, a high number that is distributed as 80 in Lagos, 38 in Kano, 15 each in Bauchi and Ogun, 11 in Borno, 10 in Gombe, nine in Sokoto, five each in Edo and Jigawa, two in Zamfara and one each in Delta, Enugu, Nasarawa, Rivers and FCT.

He said: “255 persons have been successfully treated for COVID-19 and discharged, and sadly, 44 deaths have been recorded.

“The increasing figure of confirmed cases underscores the ongoing community transmission, which is a major challenge and again necessitates a call on all citizens not to take this COVID-19 lightly; but to take ownership of the initiatives for nonpharmaceutical interventions with strict adherence to public health advisories, maintain social distance, practice hand and respiratory hygiene, avoid crowded places and wear your mask or a face covering when you leave your house.”

Ehanire said these and other related measures are critical, and an integral part of the strategy to ease restrictions as from the 4th of May and that failure to comply can have undesirable effects.

The minister added that there was the need to provide and prepare isolation centers and more bed spaces in all states of the federation, appealing to each state authority and the FCT to give first-line attention to this requirement in order to meet expectations and obligations.

He said:

“As testing ramps up, the need will become more and more obvious. It should, therefore, be prioritized so that we are not taken by surprise.

I should take the opportunity to request Distinguished Senators, Hon. members of Houses of Representatives and Assemblies to also get involved in the disease surveillance and notification efforts in their constituencies and to actively support the drive to rapidly increase bed spaces for Isolation and treatment in their States.

“I shall also strongly urge those who test positive for COVID-19 to cooperate with the directives of authorities, on isolation, so as not to constitute a risk and a cause for public concern.”

He said the government had completed plans to start training and capacity building of much needed intensive care workforce for various parts of the country.

The minister also said that the Federal Government’s team to Kano State had commenced work and were well received by the state governor and have been able to conduct an appraisal of the situation and start working on outlines of providing technical support to the state’s COVID-19 task force in several aspects.

Kano has been in the news after hundreds of deaths were recorded in the past week from an unidentified illness. Consequently, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered a complete lockdown of the state last Monday for two weeks, promising to provide technical supports to unravel the cause of the deaths.