By Chuks Oyema-Aziken
As Nigerians face the second waves of Covid-19, the need for caution has been stressed.
Minister of Environment, Dr Mohammad Mahmoud Abubakar gave the warning at a ministerial press briefing on Thursday.
According to him “it is necessary that we remind ourselves that Nigeria is witnessing a resurgence of COVID-19 Infection going by the records of the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control(NCDC).
“The second wave as it is known, is hitting countries and territories with varying degrees of impact. The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, has been advocating to Nigerians to observe safety provisions in the Protocol for Corona Virus Disease control in the Country”.
He said that the Federal Ministry of Environment has already begun Terminal Environmental decontamination and disinfection of Premises where COVID-19 cases have been recorded stemming out of requests from such quarters.
He emphasized that “It is once more necessary to re-echo the need for Nigerian citizens to adhere strictly to provisions of the COVID-19 control protocol as the main barriers of the virus spread”.
He pointed out the need for Nigerians to keep their hand hygiene, respiratory hygiene, avoidance of crowd, physical distancing as well as terminal and concurrent decontamination and disinfection must continue to be adopted by all and sundry.
“I would like to appeal to Nigerians to embrace the safe utilization of decontamination formulations and administration by engaging only licensed Environmental Health Practitioners for Decontamination and Disinfection Services as an efficient non pharmaceutical Corona control measure”.
In an interview, Acting Registrar of the Environmental Health Officer’s Registration Council of Nigeria (EHORECON), Dr Baba Yakubu Muhammed, lamented that the second wave of the COVID-19 is more deadly than the first hence the need to strengthen the preventive health service.
“The preventive health is responsible for containment of the COVID-19, and what we are doing as profession is to alert our members which the Minister has given directive for immediate activation of all our resources, to do intensive environmental surveillance and inspection, by making sure that more specially in public places and at home to introduce artificial and natural ventilation,” he said.
Mohammed urged Nigerians to ensure that overcrowding is reduced to the minimal, while precautionary measures should be put in place.
