State of the Nation by Pros.pnation
Good day Nigerians.Happy new month to you all.Welcome to may.Wishing you all bliss in this month.
Last month as many would want to reckon,was not as exciting and splendid due to the lockdown imposed by various state government.The resulting effect on Nigerians was grievous as people languished in intensed period of inactivity,hunger,diminished source of livelihood,apprehension,aggression etc.The poor struggled to keep their hope of survival alive after exhausting the last penny they had scrubbed hard to get.
The action by the govt wasn’t a punitive gesture but as the only viable option of making headway in addressing the global pandemic.Though it was painful,demanding but it was of great necessity.Sacrifice needs to be paid for victory to be won.
The government as expected,was berated by Nigerians for their non-chalance reaction to the covid-19 outbreak,citing lack of essential healthcare facilities,dilapidated and poorly funded hospitals,inadequacy of health personnels.It was a validated accusation and criticisms by Nigerians.
Trailing the progress of this pandemic in Nigeria,from the first day it was reported in Lagos,Nigeria,feb 27 to this present day.The accretion of index cases has been alarming and frightening.As It has permeated virtually all the 36 states of the federation.
As of today,the index cases in Nigeria stood at 2803 confirmed cases,which is inclusive of 2293 Active cases,417discharged and 93 deaths.mathematical analysis shows that,we have 3.3% death rate,14.9% recovering rate. This illustrates that in every 30 covid-19 patient there is 1 death and in every 7 case there is 1 recovery.
Comparing this analysis with America,who has the highest casualties so far,globally. Current confirmed cases in America is 1.21M,65,603 death cases,160K discharged.They have a death rate of 5.8% (i.e in every 17 there is 1 death) and a recovery rate of 13.2%(i.e in every 8 there is 1 recovery).
Comparing both analysis,it’s indicating a grime prospect for the Africa’s giant.If America being a world super power with standard and sophisticated modern health care facilities could be caught up in the blizzard of covid-19 infection despite the American govt prompt reactions,then more is demanded from the Nigerian govt,if we are to gain upper hand against this virulent infection.
Barely,two weeks after we reached 1000 index cases(April 24) which took more than a month to attain,we’ve surpassed another 1000 mark in one week and are an inch close to another 1000 cases. .The exponential rise of the infection has continue to strain the viability of health care sector drastically.Health care providers are also been weighed down by this.
Consequently,this has caused an increased in mortality in Nigeria from non-covid related cases as Patients are left in abject solitude at their own peril.Most sickly individuals has died from illness that would have easily been averted just because most Hospitals are not willing to accept any patients no matter how debilitating the condition may seems to appear,To make it worst,Healthcare providers furtively shirks from attending to people.Every illness is now been attributed to Covid-19.Even when it's a case of severe burns resulting from fire accident,hospitals would advertently be pratting about or some would come up with excuses just to silence the entreaties of relatives who rushed their own to the hospital. From no bed to no oxygen to no syringe to no gloves to whatever excuses they could make up.Make.Most times unlucky victims would have long given up the ghost before they could finish addressing their shortcoming.
The public avoidance of sick people,fear, suspicion,Neglect coupled with poverty and hunger are causing the premature deaths of some Nigerians than Covid-19.As it seems,Every ill person and family of the sick in the community is been looked at with an eye of suspicion of having covid-19 and this has a way of confounding their fears and dampening their hope of recovery.
We can't blame the community for being cautious and reservedly avoiding contact with sick people in this period. No one wants to be affected.The spiralling effect of covid-19 has changed our primitive disposition of visiting the sick for the purpose of sympathy.
Should we also blame the health care providers for shooing away sick people? Inasmuch as many people would want to criticize them for their indifference and lack of concern for human lives-an allegation which is premised from unpleasant experience(s) that they had during their visit to hospitals. But away from that,looking at it objectively, Most Govt hospitals lack sufficient Personal protective Equipment (PPE) for their Health personnels and thus exposing many health personnels to the infection.Many of them has died from this infection as a result of contracting viral infections from patients. So some wanting to protect themselves from getting infections would employ alot of tactics possible to avoid meeting patients.
Government in time past has paid inconsiderable attention to the health care sector simply because they had solely relied on medical pilgrimage to UK,India, USA etc whenever they are I'll.But unfortunately, following the closure of international borders,medical pilgrimage has been placed on hold for a while.It was a call for everyone regardless of status a to depend on the medical services offered by their country of resident.It was a sharp jab to them.Now they have to scuffle among themselves to get the best medical attention in the country without which they would have no choice than to get use to the loathsome smell of most general hospitals in the country.
After this corona virus battle,i believe our politicians will have a rethink and will pay more attention to the healthcare sector because from this pandemic,we all has been taught that there is no place like home.A lesson they have learnt in a hard way.
Providing palliatives,imposing lockdown and other logical actions taken by the govt are nice but more need to be done and the government should be prescient of possible outbreak of malaria,meningitis etc which we know are endemic to our large population prior to covid-19.The responsiveness of the minsitry of health should be quickened so as to brace up for any outbreak .From this dire situation that we hav been plunged in,I believe the minister of health has realized that it takes more than mere words on TV to win the war.They made us believe initially that they are ready to handle Covid-19.But we shouldn't hold that against them,they have tried the little they could and they are still trying to control the spread. Let's be optimistic and cautious.
I believe with good spirit of dutifulness,proactive stance,commitment,compliance and concerted efforts,Africa will overturn all predictions that do not augur well for her economy,health,politics etc as predicted by WHO And Belinda Gates foundation.
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