New Telegraph

COVID-19: Avoiding the time bomb of 2nd wave

Experts in the health sector have raised concerns over an impending second wave of COVID-19 pandemic in the country. They argue that the laxity of Nigerians and some institutions over the pandemic calls for worry and quick responses to avert a looming disaster. REGINA OTOKPA writes

In the last few weeks, there have been rising figures in COVID-19 cases in the country; this could be due to the recent #EndSARS protest witnessed across the country with little or no regard for COVID-19 protocols, or the relaxation of the lockdown especially in the airspace, resulting to high volume of human traffic from high burden countries currently experiencing a second wave of the pandemic.

Despite President Muhammadu Buhari’s warning that the country’s economy was too fragile to witness a fresh wave of the pandemic and a lockdown; Nigerians have continued to lower their guards; there are limited adherence to physical/social distancing and use of face masks at public spaces including government and private agencies, religious, corporate, social and political gatherings, even as the culture of regular hand washing and sanitising of hands is fast fading out.

These trends are worrisome, especially now that some countries in Europe and America have entered or considering a fresh lockdown occasioned by the virus. It is worthy to note that results from months of lockdown have not been palatable as the Nigerian economy was thrown into shambles, massive job losses are still ongoing, there was a rise in health emergencies, poverty and domestic violence. Speaking to cross section of Nigerians, it’s evident that lack of trust on government, misinformation, poor sensitisation and personal beliefs were generating a poor public perception to the dreaded virus.

While many believe the virus never existed in the country, others are of the assertion it’s a disease for the rich, some believe blacks have a high immunity to the virus either due to the kind of food consumed including garlic, lemon, ginger and hot water, or just a ploy by government to amass more financial gains to their personal purse.

These assertions are dangerous most especially as history shows that the second wave of the Spanish Flu pandemic between 1918 to 1920 and the H1N1 swine flu epidemic between 2009 to 2010 were more devastating than the first. According to an advocacy toolkit for COVID- 19 Systems Rescue and Citizens’ Empowerment (CORECA) recently launched by the International Society of Media in Public Health (ISMPH), the social media has not been helpful in addressing the worsening situation; there has been constant influx of myths around the virus. Similarly, there has been misinformation on coronavirus, vaccines and other solutions for the treatment of the infections.

This is further fueling the already bad situation. Director General, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikew Ihekweazu who raised concerns over increased easing off of COVID-19 preventive measures by institutions with capacity to insist on it, said a second wave was inevitable if Nigerians continued to demonstrate lackadaisical attitude to measures aimed at containing the viral pandemic.

“I went into a bank and I saw fewer people wearing masks, yet there is a manager in that bank that can insist that these measures are carried out. You go into our religious places and if people are not wearing masks anymore, there is a pastor or someone in charge that can implement this. “The second wave is not inevitable, but we can avoid it.

It can only be achieved in a sustainable way. We have to come together as a society. Nobody in this country wants another lockdown and we are hoping that we have learnt enough from the consequences of the first one to prevent the second one.” However, the Chairman, Expert Review Committee on COVID-19, Prof. Oyewale Tomori, insists Nigeria never saw the end of the first wave, noting that the initial drop in cases was due to inadequate and incomplete data on COVID-19 testings.

This was even as immediate past President, Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN), Dr. Godswill Okara revealed that with a population of 200 million, Nigeria has not tested up to a million persons in over eight months of the outbreak, in spite of the fact that laboratory testing remains a very key requirement in the identification of the disease burden.

As a matter of fact, citizens and some experts have doubted reliability of the figures on new infections, released by the NCDC from day one, arising from the several loopholes such as insufficient testing and test samples by state governments and poor contact tracing mechanism.

Tomori, a Professor of Virology, further maintained that government’s insincerity, lack of unanimous decisions by state government’s and misalignment of preventive messaging based on Nigeria’s peculiarities were some of the gaps affecting the expected responses to COVID-19 protocols and testing .

“I do not think we ever saw the end of the first wave; we manufactured the end with our inadequate testing and added on an icing of incomplete data on our poor inadequate testing. So, it is difficult to know if we actually know whether we peaked or are still peaking. “Some of the states are eager to collect COVID-19 funds, but keep denying the existence of the disease. So, we have not had unanimity from our governments.

One state says open schools churches, mosques, etc., while the other says close,close, close. “Our messaging has been based on using preventive measures of Europe and America to run our response. People in Europe and America see sick, dying and the dead from COVID-19 cases are in large numbers. So, it is easy to understand mass campaign of face mask safe, distancing, etc.

“Here, yes there is COVID-19 but not in the magnitude of other parts of the world. Therefore, our intervention should have focused on THE INDIVIDUAL; save yourself to save the public, not save the public to safe yourself. Safety should be me first. “Also, the way the data have been presented by NCDC left some rooms for doubt but it is more than that. We have never had a government that we trust/ So, why should we believe the government now? They talk of palliatives, but the public did not see palliatives until they were looted out of storage by hoodlums who we now call hoodlums. The real hoodlums are not on the streets but in government offices, our chambers of legislation and justice.

So, who can trust such a government?” However, with the Yuletide fast approaching, the poor citizens’ perception resulting to a laxity to all the COVID-19 protocols is a ticking time bomb; the cold weather and mass return of citizens from high burden countries to celebrate the festivities with friends and loved ones pose grave danger.

Government at all levels must brace up to intensifyNigeriaspecific COVID-19preventive messagesbothinEnglishandlocallanguages, through specific andappropriate information channels peculiar to urban and rural areas, ensure citizens inclusion, integration and alignment to COVID-19 systems response.

Aptly captured in CORECA’s advocacy tool kit presented by Executive Director ISMPH, MojiMakanjuola, itisimportantforpolicymakers to better capture engagement of citizens, lead platform in the community, review and incorporate the strategic National Health Development Plan 2, and use lessons learnt from COVID-19 to improve policies around health security and health system strengthening.

The kit further advocated from the political arena, “advocacy for inclusive decisions, policies and actions to ensure all measures to mitigate the impact of the pandemic touch on the vulnerable groups, especially, women, girls, children and the elderly. This will address the impact of COVID-19 on livelihoods and other social services.

“Advocacy for possible integration of infodemic in the legislative actions and measures against fake news, to mitigate the impact on essential health care services and the victims of social stigma and discrimination against COVID-19 survivors.

“Advocacy for allocation of adequate resources to support development of appropriate information and education materials and their wide dissemination to the grassroot levels. Advocacy for more political will to mobilise and allocate adequate resources to support health system research and to ensure public health policies, decisions and actions are aligned and consistent with science and evidence from research.”

However, a change in citizen’s perception and behaviour remains key to averting increased infections and according to Dr. Okara, government across all levels must increase COVID-19 testing, consider engagement of communication experts and public health professionals to articulate population-specific messages to increase awareness of the serious danger facing the country and its already weak health systems in the event of a second wave.

“There is a dire need for government to step up and intensify Information, Enlightenment and Communication (IEC) activities directed at the public for sustained control measures and behavioural changes for prevention of spread of the disease.

“Now that the World Bank has released a sum of a billion naira to each state government in Nigeria, with a mandate to devote a substantial part of the fund to increasing laboratory testing capacity in each state, we hope more people would be tested to enhance control activities.

“The Lafiya-World Bank Project of assisting state governments in engaging private sector medical laboratories to upscale COVID- 19testinginNigeria, itishoped thataccess to testing would be made a lot easier to membersof thepublic. Besides, stategovernments would need to work with the Lafiya-World Bank Project Team to engage and empower private sector laboratories to increase testing capacity and access at state levels.” Prof. Tomori on the other hand, strongly believes that besides government imbibing a culture of honesty and transparency, a lot can be achieved by simply adhering to the laid down protocols of wearing a face mask appropriately in public spaces, practice safe distancing and frequent hand washing.

“Government must continue to drum it into our ears that COVID-19 is not over and we as citizens must show some responsibility by doing what we need to do to save our life, protect our loved ones and neighbours. “COVID-19 must be seen as an opportunity to improve and rebuild the foundation for good and universal healthcare. It must not be an opportunity to enrich bottomless pockets of greedy and unpatriotic citizens who have no fear in stealing COVID-19 response funds and further smearing their already blood stained hands. “There is need for honesty, truthfulness, complete transparency on the side of the government.

For example, who knows how much the government has spent on COVID-19? “Telling us the positive numbers of tests without telling us the number tested is incomplete information bothering on fraud and fake news. The sad thing is you have to extract the truth from the government like extracting crude oil from the sea; this is dangerous for governance. Our government must work on being trusted.”

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