Agency Reporter The Federal Government has commenced its oxygen intervention plan to states to ensure that patients with severe cases of the covid-19 virus are well-catered for.It recently expressed worries over inadequate oxygen in states, even as isolation centres had to admit and manage increasing numbers of severe cases of the disease.It, therefore, stated that in making oxygen available for states, priority would be given to those with obvious need for oxygen to manage such cases.Minister of State for Health Dr. Olorunnimbe Mamora stated these on Thursday during the news briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on covid-19 in Abuja.Read Also: COVID-19: FG approves establishment of life-support oxygen plants nationwidePTFMamora, who was represented by the Director of Hospital Services at the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Adebimpe Adebiyi, said: We remain committed to ensuring that morbidity due to COVID-19 is reduced to the barest minimum and to continuously improve on the fatality rate. We have put in place strategies to ensure that infected patients on treatment get quality treatment in all the isolation centres across the country through periodic monitoring and supportive supervision. Such activities will help us identify immediate, intermediate and long-term challenges and gaps to proffer solutions and where necessary, provide intervention.Such assessment is also expected to facilitate the aspect of psychosocial support to both frontline health workers, patients as well as the various support staff at the isolation centres. This will also assist in mitigating the problems of fatigue, depression and other psychological conditions associated with COVID-19.The implementation of the oxygen availability intervention plan for all the states plus FCT as approved by the Federal Government has commenced. Facilities will be prioritised based on the severity of the gaps identified such as degree of need or the degree of unavailability oxygen determines the first or early beneficiaries of the intervention.Concerning how effective the vaccine will be for new strains of the virus and the span of immunity the vaccines will provide, the Executive Director/CEO of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shuaib, said: It is only so far in the United kingdom that we are aware of the predominant strength of the new variant. I want us not to obsess too much about this new strain. What the manufacturers have indicated is that even if there is a need to tweak the vaccine, it is not going to be a major problem in terms of what needs to be done to provide a vaccine against these new strains. It is a great thing that technology has advanced to be able to produce vaccines in such a Concerning how long the protection of the vaccine will last, one thing that we are aware of is that this vaccine is new. So, we do not have absolute information about how long they will last because the vaccines are just a few months old. It is only a question of time before we know exactly how long their immunity will last.
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