{"id":26287,"date":"2020-05-12T11:00:29","date_gmt":"2020-05-12T10:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=26287"},"modified":"2020-05-12T11:00:29","modified_gmt":"2020-05-12T10:00:29","slug":"catholic-church-gives-425-clinics-as-isolation-centres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=26287","title":{"rendered":"Catholic Church gives 425 clinics as isolation centres"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Abujah Racheal<\/strong> (NAN)
\nChairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Mr. Boss\u00a0Mustapha, Monday said Catholic Bishops have volunteered 425 of their clinics across the country as isolation centres.
\n\u201cCatholic Bishops Conference has volunteered all the 425 hospitals and clinics nationwide for adaptation and use as isolation centres.
\nMustapha said: \u201cGovernors are encouraged to please approach Catholic Bishops in their states to access these facilities,\u201d he added.
\nThe PTF has advised State governments to set up isolation centres with a minimum of 300 beds in their states, to strengthen the fight against the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
\nMustapha, who is also the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, made the call on Monday in Abuja, at the PTF daily briefing on COVID-19 in the country.
\nMustapha said that the isolation centres should include wards and Intenesive Care Units (ICUs).
\n\u201cThis will help accommodate levels one and two cases. However, with the increase in numbers, we are beginning to experience a shortage of bed spaces in the isolation centres, especially in the high-burden areas.
\n\u201cWe are conscious of the need to take care of different categories of persons like those living with disabilities, terminal conditions and other underlying factors co-morbidities,\u201d he said.
\nThe PTF chairman said that contracting COVID-19 is not a death sentence but disregarding the guidelines for its avoidance, as guided by experts, is a costly self-voyage.
\n\u201cUnfortunately, such choices cannot be made by individuals; it has to be collective and we are all resolute in stamping this scourge out of Nigeria,\u201d he noted.
\nHe appealed to Nigerians to continue to comply with all guidelines.
\n\u201cYou must take personal responsibility for your actions,\u201d he declared.
\nMustapha, who noted that May 10 marked the end of the first week in the ease of restriction phase,\u00a0reminded Nigerians that they were still in Phase One of the three-pronged fortnightly strategy.
\n\u201cThe completion of the first week has provided the PTF COVID-19 an opportunity for a mid-phase review of the impact of the guidelines put in place to drive our National Response.
\n\u201cI am also sure that Nigerians have equally focused on the pandemic and have done their assessment of progress made, especially as it relates to compliance,\u2019\u2019 he stressed.
\nHe said that one gratifying outcome of the assessment that the PTF had undertaken as stakeholders was the convergence of thoughts on the level of compliance with the guidelines and how individual and collective responses could improve or jeopardise the ability to contain the virus.
\n\u201cDuring the first week, the country generally witnessed increased number of positive cases. This is attributable to our expanded capacity for testing with the opening up of more testing centres and laboratories.
\n\u201cAs at today, there are 23 laboratories nationwide, including private laboratories; we shall continue to engage with more private laboratories,\u201d he explained.
\nHe said that the PTF had continued to review the relevant policy and protocols so that actions and decisions would be most effective.
\n\u201cWe are working toward taking COVID-19 positive cases out of circulation to avoid the spread of the virus.
\n\u201cWe have recognised a significant role for community ownership, guidance, acceptance and implementation and the PTF will introduce appropriate inclusive policies in the coming weeks.
\nYou will all be apprised of developments on this in due course,\u201d he said.
\nAs a further cost-effective measure, he reminded sub-national authorities that the Nigeria Institute of Architects had pledged to provide free services targeted at modifying, designing and supervising all COVID-19 related projects nationwide.
\n\u201cWe urge that this offer be taken up speedily,\u2019\u2019 he urged.
\nHe, however, said that the PTF had also continued to receive, rather sadly, reports about challenges facing the frontline health workers.
\n\u201cThey have received threat to lives, experienced detention by patients they are actually nursing to health and suffered other forms of harassment.
\n\u201cLet me underscore the fact that these frontline workers constantly put their lives on the line to make sure persons infected are provided with the best care possible to enable them become healthy citizens again.
\n\u201cIt is therefore inhuman and unacceptable that patients engage in acts of locking them up and making demands that these frontline officers, most of the time, do not have the capacity to address,\u201d he said.
\nMustapha stressed that the PTF on COVID-19 views such behaviour as reprehensible and should be deprecated while calling on all state governments to take that up appropriately.
\nHe said that on the overall, the PTF was identifying and assessing all low to medium and high burden areas with a view to assessing and modifying their strategy.
\nThis, he said, would involve drilling down from all tiers of government to community level.
\n\u201cThis mention serves as a notice to traditional religious and community leaders to brace up for deeper involvement as we develop the protocols to strengthen community ownership in the National Response.
\n\u201cWhile we continue to work on all options, the PTF wishes to repeat the dangers inherent in lack of compliance with guidelines issued.
\n\u201cWe must always remind Nigerians that Mr President took a painful and difficult decision to ease the restrictions by approving revised measures that will maintain a balance between the safety of Nigerians and some level of economic activities.
\n\u201cThe main goal is to sustain means of livelihood, especially for the poor and vulnerable who depend on daily means of subsistence,\u201d he said.
\nHe warned Nigerians against seeing the ease in restriction of movement as an excuse to lead the lives they were used to, pre-COVID-19 days.
\n\u201cI wish to reiterate that the world today has completely changed from what we used to know and if we want to continue living the old ways, the cost will be enormous.\u2019\u2019
\nHe disclosed that the PTF would soon inaugurate the Thisday Dome treatment and isolation facility, adding that it would add 270 beds to the isolation capacity in Abuja.
\n\u201cThis is a private sector-driven initiative and we commend the efforts of ThisDay, NNPC, Sahara and its partners,\u201d he said.
\n\u25aa By NAN<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Abujah Racheal (NAN) Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Mr. Boss\u00a0Mustapha, Monday said Catholic Bishops have volunteered 425 of their clinics across the country as isolation centres. \u201cCatholic Bishops Conference has volunteered all the 425 hospitals and clinics nationwide for adaptation and use as isolation centres. Mustapha said: \u201cGovernors are encouraged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":17027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5773,7],"tags":[1348,1591,1202],"class_list":["post-26287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","category-news","tag-catholic","tag-clinics","tag-isolation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}