Delta State Government has said that engaging survivors of COVID-19 in the State is part of the strategy towards creating awareness and sensitising the visibility of coronavirus in the State, especially as most people still doubt the existence of the deadly virus.
The Senior Special Assistant to the State Governor on Health Monitoring, Dr. Michael Nwoko, disclosed this on Channels Television COVID-19 update program.
Nwoko who is also a Member of the State COVID-19 Taskforce said that the Strategy was adopted by the Governor of the State, Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa and the entire COVID-19 team to ensure that the people adjust their belief system in order to accommodate the reality of COVID-19, while they continue to comply with the preventive protocols, such as the social distancing, compulsory use of face mask in public, regular washing of hands with clean water and soap or use of alcohol based hand sanitizer.
‘The State Government realized that there was the need to ensure that its operation was coordinated in a transparent manner by bringing some of the survivors of COVID-19 who never believed that COVID-19 was real to attest to that fact that the virus is real, why also highlighting their experience during the course of their treatment in the treatment facilities,” he said.
The SSA also stated that the approach has really helped the State government as statistics has proved it positive, especially as there is a decline in the number of COVID-19 cases in the State.“In Delta State, as at July 21, we had about 759 cases on admission and today we have about 161 cases on admission. If you juxtapose it with the figures at that time, you will come to the conclusion that we are really flattening the COVID-19 curve in Delta State.
“However, the entire COVID-19 team is not sleeping; we are working around the clock, even though we have been able to flatten the curve. The whole idea is for us to sustain the tempo so as to avoid a second wave of the pandemic, because attaining success in life is not really a problem, but where the issue lies is the ability to maintain the success rate recorded,” he noted.
He assured that the safety of residents of Delta State are effectively guaranteed as far as this COVID-19 struggle is concerned, adding that the government and COVID-19 team have a firm believe that “we will sustain the tempo and avoid a second wave of the pandemic and people will be free from the virus.”
On the tracking and tracing measures by the State, Dr. Nwoko said the government has consistently maintained a 99 percent success rate in contact surveillance through the door-to-door identification of persons of interest.
“You will agree with me that contact surveillance is germane in the fight against COVID-19 because if you are not able to identify the POI (Persons Of Interest), it is really disturbing, because this carriers of COVID-19 in the society who do not know that he/she have the virus is more dangerous than those who have been confirmed positive, because when they are tested and confirmed positive, they are taken to the treatment facilities.
“So the State is taking the contact tracing exercise seriously and has deployed a large number of disease surveillance officers who have received proper training to carry out effective contact surveillance,” he explained, even as he commended the State Governor, Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, for his strategy and support for the COVID-19 Team in the State which he noted has lend credence to the successes recorded.
