Dr. Osagie Ehanire, The Minister of Health, announced that the Federal Government is cooperating with the World Health Organisation, (WHO) on treatment regimen solidarity trial with the following states: Lagos, Ogun, Kaduna, Sokoto, Kano and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
However a time and date has not been given to when the trial will begin and the modalities for it.
1,200 patients have been randomised from the first five countries to evaluate the safety and efficiency of the drug combinations. WHO stated that “The Solidarity Trial will compare four treatment options against standard of care, to assess their relative effectiveness against COVID-19.”
The international health body added that as at 21st April 2020, over 100 countries have been working together to find an effective therapeutics. “The greater the participating countries, the faster results will be generated. WHO is facilitating access to thousands of treatment courses for the trial through donations from a number of manufacturers. Until there is sufficient evidence, WHO cautions against physicians and medical associations recommending or administering these unproven treatments to patients with COVID-19 or people self-medicating with them.
According to Dr. Osagie Ehanire, Nigeria conducted 27,078 COVID-19 tests with 4,399 cases in 34 states and the FCT. “Kogi and Cross River States have not reported any cases, but we are optimistic that we can work with the State Health Ministry to validate this in due course, when we engage the state authorities. A team from the Ministry of Health, made up of experts from various specialties, including the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), is on standby to proceed to Calabar as soon as travel arrangements can be made, taking with them, resource to support the health system.
“Senior management of the Federal Ministry of Health and clinical case managers in our hospitals, this morning participated in a multinational teleconference with Chinese medical and academic experts in Beijing, where much insight was gained into the treatment strategy of China and other matters of common interest were discussed. The learnings from this intervention are invaluable in reexamining our methods.”
“It is important that our response to COVID-19 be a concerted national, collaborative drive, to stand a better chance of being effective.”
“ So far, our efforts are yielding result as shown in states where panic and scare were initially rife, but now subsumed.”
Dr. Osagie Ehanire, said: “The ThisDay Dome treatment center, a project of the Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) is complete and ready for commissioning tomorrow. The Hon. Minister of FCT will participate in the event. “This center is fully self-contained, coming with a PCR Laboratory, a fully equipped ICU and an incinerator. This over 260 bed facility adds tremendous boost to the FCT capacity and capabilities.”
