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Jat HotNews:- Hon. Commissioner Ministry of health, for the purpose of our readers may we know you?
Commissioner:- My name is Dr. Lar Ndam Nimkong, the Commissioner of health Plateau State.
Jat HotNews:- Sir, we have been on and off with the issues of this Covid 19 in Plateau State, you are always going round and holding meetings and always very busy, can you give us a run down of the activities of the Covid 19 in Plateau State particularly the Health Ministry so far?
Commissioner:- We started long ago almost two or more months and the main issues is the preventive aspect, we tried to educate and sensitize our people about the basic preventive measures like hand washing, use of hand sanitizers, respiratory hygiene, what you should do when you cough or sneeze and also the social distancing where you and the next person should be two meters apart so that if the person coughs it wouldn't reach you. Recently we talk about the use of face masks and fortunately the President said from today 4th of May, you cannot appear in public places without a facemask and we know that there are medical and non medical masks and we need people to use non medical face masks using cotton being sewn to make it and the diameter and width should be 10×6 inches. Also, the vulnerable groups, whose health is severe after contact, people above 65 years and those with various medical conditions like hypertension, diabetes, renal diseases and liver diseases, it was concluded that none that have fallen in this groups should leave their homes because lots of people are moving with the disease without showing any symptoms fortunately the average Plateau man knows all these preventive measures but the problem is implementation. Plateau people have been helpful in their little ways.The government said anybody coming into Plateau State should be reported and they did and that helped with the successes we have seen because we do not have any community transmission yet.
Jat HotNews:- Like you said, those that are positive today are persons that brought it from outside the state through the borders, what advice have you given the Government to make sure border Management is very strict so that these people coming from infected states don't take it into Plateay State?
Commissioner:- At any of our Covid 19 meetings, border Management has been our major issue and that is why the Government tried to install CCTV but Nigerians are very crafty where they do not use their normal routes to get into the State. I think we have warned alot of Security officials to make sure those disobeying the law should go back because the lockdown says 'no coming into the state' we think they are giving them money.
Jat HotNews- Sir, in this regard are you thinking of advising the Government to put those huge slabs across the road to stop them from coming.
Commissioner:- Yes I saw it in Kaduna, that is Kaduna and it would not be easy to do it here. We used barricades here as funds is needed to do such. we are in absolute control of our borders as security is always in check to protect the boarders
Jat HotNews:- Talking about training, has the Ministry been able to train your front line staffs on how to handle tests, equipment and persons affected?
Commissioner:- Yes the Ministry has been training, people in our Lab finished there trainings yesterday. First we had training on case Management in Juth before the first index case, they were thoroughly trained for three days and after that we did it for disease notification for surveillance officers in all the 17 Local Governments. And we have one more training which is Detection, Prevention and Control for a large number of Front line workers.
Jat HotNews:- Yesterday, you were on news saying there are two new positive cases found in Plateau State. Where and how were they traced?
Commissioner:- It was day before yesterday in the night that the NCDC came out with the result of 54 people tested and two were positive. These two came from one of our quarantine centers and those two people have been taken to Isolation centers for treatment but unfortunately for people in the quarantine center including those positive, there was no social distancing so they had to be requarantined yesterday to observe another 14 day quarantine.
Jat HotNews:- Speaking about the first index case how is she recuperating?
Commissioner:- She has been doing beautifully well, shes in good health and enjoying herself while treatment is on going. We made everything good for her like installment of a television, so she is comfortable and her follow up result as of now is Negative and we are trying to do the second one. There is great hope and the Covid 19 is not a death sentence. She would be discharged very soon.
Jat HotNews:- Talking about these isolation centers, how equipped are they? And where are they located now?
Commissioner: There are different levels of this disease, first is the people at risk which are the people coming from places having the outbreak of Covid 19 and that is level 1 while Level 2 are people that have the disease but it is mild and those are the people being put in treatment Centers then we have people that have the severe cases which will need oxygen and ventilators and also close monitoring and we have 5 isolation centers Juth, Bingham, Plateau Hospital, Pankshin
Jat HotNews:- What assurance do you have for medical workers as it relates to PPA to enable them to perform their duties withwithout fear or hindrance?
Commissioner:- PPA is a major issue and they are costly but the Government is trying her best to reused so we believe that if we get the materials we could sew it and make it available for these workers. It is costly to use and discard immediately.
Jat HotNews:- What challenges is the Covid 19 Committed in Plateau State particularly the health Ministry facing in combating the Covid 19 pandemic?
Commissioner:- There are many issues like the challenge of shortage in Man power we need more people to be able to fight the pandemic, the other challenge is Money, we need so many things money can provide, the Government cannot do it alone we need support, we can even get volunteers and pay them. Like some people on the quarantine centers in B/ladi we use hotels meaning the cost is so much.
Jat HotNews:- About the camps, do you have adequate security to stop persons that are quarantined from running away?
Commissioner:- Where would you get adequate security? We have about twelve police men at the NYSC camp. We have more at the Mangu camps like yesterday we had reinforcements when they were misbehaving.
Jat HotNews:- Do you have any call to the people of Plateau State?
Jat HotNews:- What assurance do you have for medical workers as it relates to PPE to enable them to perform their duties without fear or hindrance?
Commissioner:- PPE is a major issue and they are costly but the Government is trying her best to ensure that PPA is given especially those in the Isolation Centers. We will make PPE available for them to use and we are making efforts to make sure they get these PPE, we have found out that there is a very good material in Nigeria that can be used and reused so we believe that if we get the materials we could sew it and make it available for these workers. It is costly to use and discard immediately.
Jat HotNews:- Now that the President and Governor has directed that everybody should use face masks and some people cannot afford it, is the State Government and the Minister of health doing anything to purchase these hand masks just like the Lagos state Government orders for a million masks to distribute for the public?
Commissioner:- Yes, we know that these medical face masks are very expensive and not in the market and the few we got are for the medical staffers use to see the patients we advice every Plateau man to sew, all you need is a 100% cotton cloth with two layers, the length and width is 10×6 and it is very effective.
Jat HotNews:- What challenges is the Covid 19 Committed in Plateau State particularly the health Ministry facing in combating the Covid 19 pandemic?
Commissioner:- There a many issues like the challenge of shortage in Man power we need more people to be able to fight the pandemic, the other challenge is Money issues we need so many things money can provide, the Government cannot do it alone we need support, we can even get volunteers and pay them. Like some people on the quarantine centers in B/ladi we use hotels meaning the cost is so much.
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