COVID-19: NCDC recommends virtual campaigns for elections
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control yesterday announced new guidelines for the conduct of elections in the country amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
NCDC Director-General, Chikwe Ihekweazu, during the briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, urged political parties to make use of electronic media for campaigns as well as mobile truck with everyone wearing face masks, maintaining physical distance as well as frequent use of hand sanitizers.
"We’ve developed and are launching new guidelines for the conduct of elections during the COVID-19 pandemic. The guidelines will support INEC, political parties and most especially Nigerians who will be voting in these critical times.
“We really want to urge politicians and political leaders to take responsibility and lead by example. Leadership will be critical in this era. Think about the lives of your electorate first; your electorate staying alive is far more important than any votes you might win,” Ihekweazu said.
He said the NCDC had launched COVID-19 Online Course on Infection Prevention and Control targeted at health care workers to reduce the risk of transmission of the virus and other infectious diseases while administering health care in the country.
“The course features modules on standard and transmission-based precautions, use of personal protective equipment and other essential aspects of infection control in healthcare," he said.
He also said it was the responsibility of states to evacuate COVID-19 patients to medical facilities for treatment.
According to him, the NCDC cannot forcefully take a patient to the hospital as it is not a law enforcement agency.
Speaking on a viral video showing a patient being forcefully evacuated, Ihekweazu said while he could not vouch for any health officer conduct in the country, the evacuation of patients remained the duty of the state governments.
He said: “Every state has a responsibility for evacuation; as we start increasing the inclusion of the private sector in care, you would find that more people would start evacuating patients with the private sector services. So, there is a whole spectrum of possibilities that could have happened.
“What we don’t do as health workers is to use force to evacuate patients to provide them care. That would be a very unusual reaction. We are not law enforcement and we are not trained in law enforcement.
“We never use force to evacuate patients; If we have difficulty and there are specific circumstances because of public health reasons why an evacuation has to happen, we would invite our friends in the (security) services to support us in that act”.