Lagos, FCT, Ogun, Kaduna, Sokoto and Kano states have enrolled on the World Health Organisation (WHO) treatment regimen on solidarity drug trials, Ehanire revealed.
The four drugs that will be monitored in the solidarity trial are Remdesivir, Chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine, Lopinavir and Ritonavir.
The Federal Government, he said, is cooperating with the WHO on treatment regimen solidarity trial in the six states. This is even as he said that as at Sunday, the country has ramped up testing by additional 1,127 to make a total of 27,078, which yielded 4,399 cases in 35 states, with a gender ratio of 70 to 30 per cent for men and women.
He also said 778 persons have been discharged and that the nation recorded 143 deaths.
“The new cases breakdown are Lagos 81, Jigawa 35, Bornu 26, Kano 26, Bauchi 20, FCT 13, Edo 12, Sokoto 10, Zamfara seven, Kwara seven, Kebbi four, Gombe two, Taraba two, Ekiti two, Ogun two, Osun and Bayelsa one each.
“Kogi and Cross River states have not reported any cases, but we are optimistic that we can work with the state Health Ministry to validate this in due course when we engage the state authorities. A team from the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) made up of experts from various specialities, including NCDC, is on standby to proceed to Calabar (Cross River) as soon as travel arrangements can be made, taking with them resource to support the health system,” Ehanire said.
He added that senior management of the FMoH and clinical case managers in the hospitals participated in a multinational teleconference with Chinese medical and academic experts in Beijing, where much insight was gained into the treatment strategy of China and other matters of common interest were discussed, yesterday.
“The learnings from this intervention are invaluable in re-examining our methods. It is important that our response to COVID-19 be a concerted national, collaborative drive, to stand a better chance of being effective… It must be sustained and or extended, with room for interstate collaboration. So far, our efforts are yielding result as shown in states where panic and scare were initially rife, but now subsumed,” he added.