PROTOCOLS
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. I welcome you to the National Briefing for today, Friday, 1st May, 2020.
2.I use this medium to extend our felicitations to all Nigerian workers as we celebrate the year 2020 Labour Day. The Nation appreciates your tenacity in driving the economy. Together, we can build a more viable country. I also wish to thank our health care workers, the Media, security agents, and indeed, all workers from different sectors that go out into the storm of COVID-19 everyday, we say thank you. Your contributions have in no small measure yielded the achievements recorded so far.
3.The atmosphere for this year’s celebration , more than anything else, forcefully reminds us of the disruption to our hitherto normal way of life and challenges us not only as workers but also as citizens; and to leave no stone unturned in our efforts to return to a semblance of normalcy. The reality is that our lives, the way we knew it, can never be the same again, post COVID-19.
4.The reality further challenges the labour movement to carry out research and develop new strategies for work place operations, and identify innovative ways of ensuring that productivity of the labour force remains a key driver to the nation’s economic growth. Particularly, the challenges we are currently facing in the health sector on account of COVID-19, should be given adequate attention.
5.This year’s Labour Theme: “Maintaining Safety and Security in the workplace” further emphasizes the importance of ensuring that all Nigerian workers are adequately protected to increase their productivity. Similarly, it places on the workers the obligation to take responsibility by adhering to the implementation guidelines that have been developed and circulated especially in this COVID-19 era.
6.The emphasis on safety has been underscored by the determination of the PTF to ensure the provision of PPEs and related gears for our healthcare workers, security personnel and other essential workers.
7.Ladies and gentlemen, as we approach the commencement of the new phase of our COVID-19 control measures, I implore all of us to individually and collectively prepare and deploy all the necessary requirements of the recommended Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions. We must also commit to making it a success through compliance.
8.In this regard, I wish to commend the Nigerian Employers Consultative Association (NECA) for developing and circulating an adaptation of the implementation guidelines released by the PTF COVID-19. I also urge all business entities as well as trade associations, especially markets and transport Unions, to similarly adapt and widely circulate these guidelines.
9.The PTF COVID -19 remains committed to containing the spread of the virus in Nigeria and would always be ready to provide specific and necessary support to any component of our federating units as an objective of the National Response.
10.In line with the above, I wish to inform you that our response to the situation in Kano is producing expected outcomes since testing was ramped up. The State Task Force in collaboration with our teams have also expanded contact tracing and isolation. A lot of emphasis is being placed on training of different categories of manpower (medical, nursing, cleaners, etc), building of capacity for coordination, care management and supply chain. We are also putting together a structure from the PTF to provide support on a fulltime basis. The UN-System (WHO) is also putting together a surge Team and re-purposing three thousand Community informants from Primary health care in Kano State, to strength the coordination of COVID at State and LGA levels.
11. Although the spike in numbers coming out of Kano is a bit worrisome, global trends show that such indicates the discovery of previously undetected cases and creates greater opportunities for detection, isolation, care and management.
12.As mentioned earlier, the guidelines for phase 1 of the eased lockdown has been released. We urge all States to adapt them and ensure the creation of awareness and compliance. The PTF will be meeting with Security agencies this weekend to fashion out modalities for enforcement.
13.Finally, I have been encouraged by the feedback from Nigerians on the need to deepen research into covid-19 so that a home-grown cure could be found. Part of the mandate of the PTF is to build a strong base for research. I therefore urge our scientists and researchers to come up with their finding and follow the validation protocols.
14.The Minister of Health and the DG-NCDC will now update you on new developments.
15.I thank you for listening.
