The Federal Government and its development partners on Thursday reviewed the impact of COVID-19 investments in Nigeria, highlighting improvements in disease surveillance, laboratory capacity and emergency preparedness while calling for sustained efforts to protect the gains.
Stakeholders made the call at the COVID-19 Grant Dissemination Meeting in Abuja, themed “Managing Partners’ Response, Celebrating Lessons and Shaping the Future.”
The event was organised by the Global Fund in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the National Agency for the Control of AIDS and the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme.
Speaking on behalf of the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Daju Kachollom, NACA Director-General Dr. Temitope Ilori said investments made during the pandemic had strengthened Nigeria’s ability to respond to future public health emergencies.
“It was a significant investment aimed at strengthening our surveillance systems, laboratories, oxygen infrastructure and community-based healthcare services,” Ilori said.
She noted that lessons from COVID-19 have improved the country’s readiness to respond to emerging threats, including recent Ebola alerts in parts of Africa.
“We are no longer in panic mode. We have come a long way and are now better prepared to respond to public health emergencies,” she said.
Global Fund Country Coordinating Mechanism Executive Secretary Dr. Tajudeen Ibrahim said the focus must now shift to sustaining the infrastructure and systems established through the programme.
“Our major concern now is how these investments will be sustained moving forward,” Ibrahim said.
According to him, COVID-19 grants funded major projects, including oxygen-generation systems, upgrades to public health laboratories and the renovation of about 23 health warehouses nationwide.
Also speaking, Dr. Yemisi Ogundare of Jhpiego Nigeria said partners helped establish and strengthen eight Public Health Emergency Operations Centres across states to improve outbreak response.
She urged government agencies, development partners and health institutions to maintain the systems created during the pandemic.
“The responsibility now lies with all of us to sustain these investments and ensure that the gains made through COVID-19 preparedness and response are leveraged for future outbreaks,” Ogundare said.
Stakeholders agreed that preserving the infrastructure, partnerships and response systems built during the COVID-19 era will be critical to Nigeria’s preparedness for future epidemics, pandemics and other health emergencies.
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