18,699 active COVID-19 cases stretching health facilities — Mamora

The Federal Government says the nation’s health facilities are increasingly finding it tough to cope with the rising cases of COVID-19.

Minister of State for Health, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, made the disclosure on Monday in Abuja at a briefing by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.

He said the 18,699 active COVID-19 cases were stretching health facilities.

Mamora said, “With the increased number of confirmed cases, the number of active cases has increased.

“As of today, we have 18,699 active cases on treatment both in health facilities and in community, using the treatment protocols.

“Many of the active cases may require care in one of the treatment or isolation centres, thus imposing enormous burden on our facilities.”

The minister said Nigeria had crossed the 100,000 mark for confirmed cases of COVID-19, saying it showed increase in infection.

As of Monday, a total of 100,087 cases were confirmed, while 80,030 cases had been discharged.

Mamora said the country had lost 1,358 people to the novel coronavirus.

He said, “In the last 24 hours, 1,024 new confirmed cases were recorded in 17 states, with eight deaths. The case fatality rate stands at 1.36 per cent.

“So far, we have tested a total of 1,025,560 people with a positivity rate of 9.8 per cent. Our testing rate in the last few weeks has increased as we continue to engage states to scale up their case finding and testing.”

Mamora said the country was working to meet a target of testing two million residents within the shortest period.

He added that results from tests conducted on prospective National Youth Service Corps members confirmed that no part of the country was free of COVID-19.

He said, “We safely and comfortably drew this conclusion because corps members are mobilised from all the states of the country for each of the orientation camps.

“The report that many of those who died reported late for treatment at the approved centres because they were referred late from private facilities is alarming.

“We therefore once again urge healthcare practitioners to promptly send all suspected cases for testing and, when positive, refer them to isolation centres for treatment.

“Attempting to treat suspected or confirmed cases will not only expose the health workers in such a facility to risk of infection but also deny the patient early access to effective treatment in an approved treatment centre.”

Mamora also said the plan of the Federal Government regarding activation of oxygen availability in the states was on course.