Our middling approach to coronavirus management

THE PUBLIC SPHERE with Chido Nwakanma

Compromise is one of those words that have double meanings. One definition paints it as positive and the other clothes it in negativity. "An agreement or settlement of a dispute that is reached by each side making concessions" is one take. The other side defines it as, "The expedient acceptance of standards that are lower than is desirable".

Compromise is the middle path. PMB chose this route Monday, 27 April 2020 as he added one more week to the 28-days lockdown of Lagos, Ogun and the FCT as part of coronavirus containment measures. Nigerians and how things play out would determine which side of the coin of compromise the Federal Government chose on Monday.

From 4 May, Lagos and FCT as the epicentres of the covid19 spread in Nigeria would embark on a hermaphrodite lockdown. People would be free to do their stuff all day and then be locked in all night. Lagosians are already pointing out that Lagos does not shut down at 8 pm ordinarily, but they should know that these are not ordinary times.

Nigeria, through the Presidential Task Force on Covid19 (PTFCovid19), chose the well-travelled road. Many countries in Africa are lifting lockdowns as those in Europe and America with higher incidents and death tolls also move for changing the lockdown model. More significantly, the Federal Government listened to the Governors on the road to travel with coronavirus management.

PMB's new measures closely aligned with the prescription of the governors. They said in a letter that somehow leaked onto WhatsApp, just like the Presidential address, that Mr President should incorporate their recommendations. These are inter-state lockdown, excluding the movement of essential supplies; internal free movement but with restrictions on large gatherings and assemblies; and overnight curfew -the FG made it 8 pm to 6 am. Others are lockdown of flights (not mentioned in PMB's address) and the compulsory use of facemasks/coverings in public.

I commend the PTFCovid19 for heeding the counsel of the 36 state governors on the matter. The governors have been at the forefront of managing the pandemic much more than the Federal Government. It is appropriate for the government to listen to those handling the case.

Everyone is concerned about the poor attitude and performance of the Kano State Governor, contrary to the examples of his colleagues. Now that the President has promised deployment of the three Ms of men, money and materials to Kano, we must hope that Dr Abdullahi Ganduje will raise his game.

Compromise featured again in the presidential address concerning accountability. PTFCovid19 owes Nigerians responsibility for how the Federal Government and its agencies handle covid19. One significant area is testing. The other is the management of the donations and funds with which companies have generously endowed the government.

How many tests have we conducted? There is talk of "about 10, 000" against the backdrop of a presidential charge to NCDC to deliver 4000 tests a day. PMB demanded this a day after disclosing to Nigeria that the nation had a capacity for 1, 500 daily. He read in his address on Monday that we could now do 2, 500 daily.

In "The next 14 days in Nigeria", I surmised that given the presidential order, NCDC should deliver at least 25, 000 tests by Monday 27 April. They only kept at their pace of adding 5000 tests in 14 days or 357 per day.

Sadly, we are such a laggard with testing. What are the challenges? What can we do to ramp up the numbers? We are not meeting up either with our targets or in parallel with our peers. Do better, and do it quickly.

Mr President was evasive on the matter of funding. The Federal Government, he disclosed, took the commendable step of insuring our frontline health workers. What did it cost? The Nigerian insurance industry provided an N11billion cover for 5000 health workers as their contribution to the covid19 fight.  They paid premiums amounting to N112b. The life insurance would give beneficiaries N3m (doctors) N2m for pharmacists/nurses and N1million for all others. In other words, it did not require the FG spending a kobo! On what has PTFCovid19 spent funds and how much?

PTFCovid19 ought to have included in the presidential address the figure of all donations they have received. Nigerians deserve to know, as is the best practice all over the world.

Covid19 is a new frontier in public health management. It offers opportunities for countries to innovate and take bold steps. Even Madagascar is trending for such bold steps, yet PTFCovid19 that listed developing a new framework for scientific enquiry as one of its objectives has said nothing about that bromide. Instead, we have progressed only in empowering fashion designers to do face masks but nothing in science and technology, medicine, pharmacy, fabrication or medical laboratory science. We are middling through.

What is the strategy and direction of our fight against covid19? Now that we have a combination of lockdown and open-the-economy with low testing, what are the expectations? If the modelling had projected 2000 cases, but we delivered 1230 on little testing, what happens if the assumptions or the reality of testing changes? What if the numbers suddenly increase? To the reader, be a Boy Scout; be prepared.

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