June 24, 2020
The Senior Special Assistant to Delta State Governor on Health Monitoring and member of Covid-19 Enforcement Committee, Dr Michael Nwoko, has advised residents of Delta State to make necessary cultural adjustments to be able to weather through the coronavirus pandemic.
He warned that individuals who fail to adhere to the pandemic preventive measures stand to put their personal safety into serious jeopardy.
The SSA, further stated that Delta State, has long foreseen what is happening now, hence, the Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa took necessary proactive measures to safeguard residents of the State, even long before the Federal and most States swung into action.
Nwoko, called on citizens to reciprocate the Governor’s concern for their safety and wellbeing, by adhering to the COVID-19 preventive measures issued by NCDC.
The SSA, stated this during an interactive section on Voice Of Delta program, Frank Talk, an audience participation program of Delta Broadcasting Service Radio, Asaba, featured on Tuesday, June 23, which focused on the spikes of the COVID-19 pandemic in Delta State.
Nwoko, maintained that the State Government is playing its parts diligently, to curtail the spikes of the virus, adding that what is left is for citizens to comply with Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) preventive guidelines to stay safe from the pandemic, while insisting that the situation at hand is a matter of life and death, which may not necessarily need legislation to enforce.
The SSA further outlined actions being implemented by the State government to contain the spread of the pandemic, which include, contact tracing of persons of interest , testing, isolation and treatment.
He emphasized that testing is very necessary to provide data for effective planning and that Delta State is recording high figures because of its increased testing capacity, and insisted that some States are returning lower figures, not because they have fewer cases but because, they are not testing as much as Delta State is doing.
The SSA further posited that the spike in COVID-19 cases in the Country as well the non compliance of the people to preventive protocols strongly indicates that there could be a second lockdown of the country, to enable States test and isolate victims in order to curtail the spread.
He said: ‘Delta State is working to increase her testing capacity, presently we have one testing center at Asaba, unlike before, where we have to take samples to Irrua specialist hospital for testing, which takes three to four days to get the result. Now we can test samples within hours. So the rate of our testing has increased tremendously. By the time we increase our testing capacity, we can now test everybody in the State. It will be compulsory for everybody to get tested.
‘The bottom line is that we should all get involve in letting the people know that COVID-19 is real and let them know that we can defeat the pandemic by adhering to the preventive measures introduced by NCDC. This is not a rocket science formula, it is as simple. So the task before every one of us; the media, community leaders, Churches, Market Associations, Youth groups and security agents is to get involved in making people to comply with preventive protocols of the pandemic.’