The Executive Secretary, Abia State Primary Health-Care Development Agency (ASPHCDA), Dr Chinagozi Adindu, has warned that if nothing positive was done in tackling the community spread of the Coronavirus the rural areas may be infected with the pandemic.
Dr. Adindu explained that the rate of the spread of the dreaded COVID-19 in the state through ‘Community Transmission’ is becoming worrisome, lamenting that most residents of the state have not yet embraced the various stipulated precautionary measures and protocols issued by government and health experts aimed at stopping its spread.
Speaking in an interview in Umuahia with Independent.ng, Adindu who is also a member of Abia State Task Force on COVID-19 and a medical doctor, revealed that what the task force is basically tackling now is the incidence of ‘community transmission’, which according to him, has suddenly increase in the number of cases in the state.
“For now, we’re disheartened because what we experience in Abia is what we call community transmission which is a very difficult situation to handle. Community transmission is a situation whereby people move around, and may not have the symptoms immediately but they’re carriers, healthy carriers.
“Because the disease is symptomatic in some cases and people keep moving around spreading the virus unknowingly,” he said.
On how to ascertain carriers of the virus in the state, the ASPHCDA boss disclosed that what the state COVID-19 force is trying to do now is to intensify the search of infected individuals by deploying Disease Surveillance Identification Officers to all the nooks and crannies of the state and regretted that most Abians are still skeptical about the outbreak of COVID-19 in the state.
This, he argued, made them to be constantly, consequently and bluntly refusing to adhere to the preventive measures, pointing out that, “but I want them to know and understand that Coronavirus is here with us. It is real, it’s not a scam and for now, there is no cure and no vaccine approved for it by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
“All we have to do is as much as possible, try to prevent this disease from spreading and to protect ourselves from contracting it by adhering to protocols itemized by medical experts such as wearing of nose masks, washing our hands frequently with water, using hand sanitizer, avoiding crowded places and that’s what we call social distancing and to an extent engage in self- isolation.
“We equally advocate that people eat nutritious foods and diets that will help improve their immunity so that they can fight against the virus,” he maintained.
