The Federal Government of Nigeria on Thursday advises private hospitals and other health facilities that treat COVID-19 patients without authorization to desist from same.
Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, responded to these concerns yesterday in Abuja during the media briefing by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, saying the federal government would come down heavily on any unauthorised facility offering treatment to infected patients.
“I shall use this opportunity to again strongly advise health professionals against private or secret management of people who have COVID-19 outside of accredited health facilities. We cannot afford avoidable morbidity and mortality,” he said, warning: “Private facilities must obtain accreditation to treat this highly infectious disease. Practitioners engaging in unauthorised treatment of COVID-19 run the risk of being shut down for decontamination.”
The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, warned that the pandemic might spread to the 36 states of the federation and urged Nigerians to prepare for the transmission of the virus to more states.
Ihekweazu, who appeared on Sunrise Daily, a live programme on Channels Television, yesterday, noted that though there were bound to be more cases, the goal was to build a more efficient public health infrastructure.
“We are responding to something, at the moment, across 22 states. But it will grow to almost every state in Nigeria. There is no reason it won’t. It is a respiratory virus.” He stated.