THE World Health Organisation, WHO, has declared that countries in Europe and America are already experiencing the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and urged governments of different countries to put structures in place to curb the virus.
In Nigeria, the country is beginning to experience a surge in COVID-19 cases. More than 2,000 cases were recorded between November and mid-December last year. This, experts said, might require an enforcement of citizen’s compliance to COVID-19 protocols. The Federal Government has warned that the country stands the risk of not just losing the gains from the hard work of the last nine months, but also of losing the precious lives of her citizens.
Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Mr. Boss Mustapha, gave the warning during a recent COVID-19 briefing in Abuja. He said that COVID-19 is threatening humanity and the progress made in the global health sector in the last five decades or more, especially with the resurgence of the disease and the spikes in the number of global infections.
Represented by the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, Mustapha noted that current realities point to the fact that the course of further opening up of the economy may have to be reviewed. Consequently, health experts said further negligence to COVID-19 protocols of social distancing, regular hand washing with soap, use of alcohol-based hand sanitiser, avoiding large gatherings may spell doom for the health sector in the country.
In a recent statement he personally signed, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, disclosed that the state is recording an increase in COVID-19 cases in all local governments. According to him, this is not peculiar to Lagos alone, as he said the entire country is also seeing an uptick in the numbers of confirmed cases of the Coronavirus disease.
He said: “Of every 100 tests that we now perform, an average of 10 turn out to be positive. This is an increase from the five per hundred recorded in September 2020, but lower than our peak in August of the same year which was between 20 and 30 per hundred. This suggests the existence of active community transmission, and represents the very likely possibility of the emergence of a second wave in Lagos State”.
Similarly, Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi, in a recent statement raised the alarm about recent spike in cases of COVID-19 in the country, urging residents to be cautious. “We are seeing a slightly increasing number of COVID-19 positive cases in clusters in Lagos and all Lagosians should adhere to the prescribed advisories of safe distancing, good hand and respiratory hygiene and avoidance of unnecessary gatherings,” Abayomi noted.
Also, Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, brought the matter before the House during plenary on Tuesday, December 15, urging Lagosians to abide by all COVID-19 precautionary protocols. He said: “There is a current surge in global cases of COVID-19. We urge our people to be careful. This is not the time to throw caution to the wind. From every indication, we are yet to get out of the woods”.
Similarly, the Team Lead, Infection Prevention Control Pillar, IPCP, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr. Oluwatosin Ijimakinwa, has identified Nigeria as one of the countries that stands a high risk of experiencing a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic if standard precautionary measures are not put in place. Dr. Ijimakinwa, who made this assertion at a training organised for clinical staff at the General Hospital, Ijede, Lagos, urged health workers to get ready for a tough battle ahead.