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COVID-19 strengthened Nigeria’s health sector —NCDC boss

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COVID-19 strengthened Nigeria's health sector —NCDC boss

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has explained that the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic led to the resilience and strengthening of the country’s health sector.

This was disclosed by the NCDC Director-General, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, during a press briefing in Abuja on Monday.

Ripples Nigeria had reported that Adetifa was appointed after Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, the erstwhile NCDC DG left for a position as the Assistant Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) to head its new pandemic intelligence hub in Berlin from Nov.1, 2021.

According to Adetifa, the pandemic has “provided an opportunity to strengthen the resilience of our health systems to respond better to current outbreaks and prepare for future public health threats.

“One key area we have improved on during the response is genomic surveillance. This enables immediate detection of emerging variants of concern so as to initiate and sustain required policy and public health response measures.

“Our focus remains to continue to support states and work with relevant institutions to sustain response efforts around surveillance, case management, laboratory diagnosis, and risk communication to keep our cases low,” he explained.

Nonetheless, the NCDC DG stated that the pandemic resulted in the disruption of lives and livelihoods across the world.

He also said that the agency was also working closely with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) to ensure a successful vaccination campaign.

Read also: PODCAST: Some accolades for ‘adamant’ Ortom as Nigeria’s health sector plunges further

“Despite the unfortunate issues of lack of access which many regions of the world continue to face, we have made incredible progress.

“Vaccines have proven to be safe and effective against COVID-19 with benefits such as less severe outcomes and declines in hospitalisation,” he assured.

On the ongoing efforts to sustain the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, he said “for a few years, I had watched the progress at NCDC.

“I am not only proud of the agency but also challenged by the incredible work that has been done in the past five years.

“The speed at which capacities have been built here at NCDC, under the leadership provided by Ihekweazu.

“The strength, commitment, and diligence of the NCDC staff and supporting partners give me hope and something to look forward to.

“My focus in the next few weeks is to work with this team, our sister agencies, and partners to understand their work better so we can collectively build on the gains made so far in line with the NCDC mandate,” he said.

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