NCDC Pledges More Support For States To Strengthen Health Security

• NCDC, Health Security

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has said it will continue to support states to strengthen their health security capacity in 2021.

The Director-General of NCDC, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, made the disclosure on Friday in Abuja in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Ihekweazu noted that though the COVID-19 pandemic might have disrupted some plans, the agency had not relented in its effort to strengthen health security at the subnational level.

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The plan to strengthen the capacity of the state was initiated at the meeting of the National Council for Health at Asaba in 2019 tagged “Strengthening States for Health Security”.

The NCDC had in December 2019 announced plans to focus on supporting states to strengthen their health security capacity in 2020.

“We intend to complete the deployment of Surveillance Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System (SORMAS) for case-based digital surveillance and Public Health Emergency Operations Centres in all the states.

“We will support states in establishing public health laboratories that will meet the basic diagnostic needs for each state.

“We will also support the strengthening of treatment centres so that every state in Nigeria will have a place to manage infectious disease cases.

“Our strategy will include strengthening the workforce for health security at the state level,“ Ihekweazu said.

He, however, pointed out that the NCDC had spent the most part of 2020 spearheading the public health response in the aftermath of the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic.

He said that notwithstanding the pandemic the agency had deployed SORMAS for case-based digital surveillance across the country.

The NCDC boss said that while the agency continued to support states, it was critical that states invest in their health security as a priority.

“Even though the NCDC had achieved most of its targets for 2020, the agency needs to focus on building on the achievements to ensure that the country is well prepared to tackle any outbreak and pandemic.’’ he said.