By Ijeoma Nwankpa, Abuja, Nigeria.
Nigerians have been advised to protect themselves against the second phase of COVID-19 pandemic.
The Executive Director of a Non- Governmental Organization, Universal Disaster Recovery Foundation ( U-DREF), Mr. Daniel Gambo, made the appeal at a sensitisation workshop on ” Building Community Resilience Against COVID-19” in Karishi area council of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
He said the sensitisation was being targeted at opinion leaders, traditional and religious leaders, who will in turn train those in their communities .
According to Mr Gambo, the sensitisation training workshop is timely following the ease of lockdown by the Federal government which allows the tendency of people to disregard COVID- 19 safety protocols.
On his part, the Executive Secretary of FCT, Primary Health Care Board, Dr. Iwot Ndaeyo, said the post workshop event would help to stop the spread of Community transmission which has already been established inline with NCDC.
” People that are having knowledge and skills to propagate the message to the communities especially in Karshi, you know Karshi is highly populated and people are going about their businesses without observing COVID-19 pandemic protocols. So these ones will be a light to the communities to ensure that the spread is stopped.”
He said that sixty- two ward Chairmen had been trained on community preparedness and response to COVID-19.
” They are vocal point for government and they are building their networks and structures who are waiting for logistics for their mobilisation.
” The Senate, NCDC and NPHCDA on COVID-19 in partnership with FCT Primary Health Care Board have already conducted five monitoring mechanism to check those that have been trained”.
Dr Ndaeyo also promised that the training would be replicated in other area councils of the FCT.
On his part, Professor Abdulsalam Nasidi, who represented the Chairman FCT Expert on COVID-19, Dr Aliyu Modibo, called for active community intervention in the area of health promotion, Community engagement, increased and expanded testing as well as contact tracing to stop the spread of Community transmission, which he said was more dangerous if not properly checked.
A clergy, Reverend Danjuma Ashaji, thanked the organizers of the initiative and promised that they would go back to their churches and communities to sensitise them on the dangers of COVID-19 pandemic and how to protect themselves from the second phase of the pandemic.
With the recent rise in number of those infected with COVID-19 pandemic in the FCT and other parts of the country, there is an urgent need to intensify sensitisation on ways to curb the pandemic, thus the need for the workshop.
