COVID-19: Enugu to begin community testing
As Enugu State recorded its fourth Coronavirus case, the House of Assembly has said that the state will increase testing by taking it to the community level in order to arrest the spread of the deadly disease.
The legislators, who condemned the ongoing industrial action embarked upon by the resident doctors of the Enugu State University Teaching Hospital (ESUT-TH), Parklane, Enugu, also expressed their readiness to look into the matter at plenary with a view to finding lasting solution to the face-off.
Chairman of the House Committee on Health, Mr. Sam Ngene, made their position known when he led some members of the committee on an oversight function at the teaching hospital.
While inspecting the COVID-19 Treatment and Isolation Centres at the hospital, he described the doctors’ action as most inauspicious, noting that they had been paid their April salaries, including the 25 per cent COVID-19 allowance offered by the state Government.
Meanwhile, concerned stakeholders, including government representatives, security agencies, leaders of Ogbete Main Market Traders Association and Ogbete Pharmaceutical Dealers Association have unanimously agreed on a partial and guided reopening of Ogbete Main Market, Enugu.
This decision followed the outcome of the parley between Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and the market leaders as well as security agencies in the State.
According to Prof. Simon Uchenna Ortuanya, the schedule for the partial and guided opening of the Market allows Pharmaceutical dealers, provisions and restaurants to open on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 8 am and 2 pm, while Tuesdays and Thursdays are designated for wholesale food dealers. This, he said, was to enable business owners serve their customers.
Reeling out the guidelines for the partial opening of the market, he said: “All shop owners entering the Market must wear protective face masks, maintain/observe proper personal hygiene and physical/social distancing protocol as stipulated by the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC), including regular hand washing with soap or sanitizer.”
Prof Ortuanya warned that any violator of the directive would be dealt with according to law.
