Omicron: States Spring Into Action, Describe Funding As Major Obstacle

State governments have sprung into action as they began mass testing for COVID-19 following the detection of the Omicron variant of the virus in the country.

Prime Business Africa gathered that the state governments include Cross River, Benue, Delta and Akwa Ibom.

The government officials, however, described the funding as a major obstacle to community testing.

They sought the assistance of the federal government on funding of community testing, particularly the running of molecular laboratories.

Speaking on the community testing in the wake of the discovery of the Omicron variant, Cross River State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Betta Edu, said: “We have already resumed community sample collection and massive vaccination.

“However, vaccine hesitancy and the high cost of running molecular laboratories have been part of our challenges.”

Edu said the state had already requested the federal government’s assistance in that regard. Also, the Benue State Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Professor Joseph Ngbea, said the state had stepped up the testing rate.

Ngbea explained that the state action committee on COVID 19 had evolved a new strategy to test people following the discovery of the new variant.

The commissioner said the state had continued to fund the COVID19 committee, which had started going to churches, mosques, schools and internally displaced persons’ camps to conduct the test.

“We have stepped up the testing capacity of people for COVID 19 in  Benue and we are very high now. We target schools and churches and some people who want to be tested do send for us and we do meet them and get them tested,” he said.

He called on the federal government to increase the budget for research to be able to tackle the spread of COVID -19.

On its part, the Delta State Government said it would resume testing immediately to check the spread of the Omicron variant.

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr. More  Ononye, said: “We will aaresume testing because it is proper that we maintain the tempo in curtailing the spread.

“For a long time now, people have stopped observing the COVID-19 protocols but with this, it is a wake-up call to everybody especially this Christmas season.

“So we are advising communities to wake up for the use of all these interventions. We are doing more sensitisation for people to get vaccinated because there is a lot of complacencies.”

Ononye said the state was expecting technical and other forms of assistance from the Federal Government to stop the spread of the virus. We need laboratory consumables, medication, others – A’Ibom commissioner

The Akwa Ibom State Commissioner of Health, Professor Augustine Umoh, said although the state would step up testing, funding was a major challenge.

Umoh said: “In Akwa Ibom State, we never stopped community testing. What we probably need to do is to ramp up testing.

“The challenge to any activity is funding especially in the light of the reality of limited resources. More consumables would be needed and the people re-awakened to the reality of COVID-19.”

The commissioner said the state needed assistance in form of funding from the federal government.

He mentioned the things needed to include laboratory consumables, funds for public health enlightenment and medication amongst others.

Enugu state government said that there was no time the state stopped community testing. The Commissioner for Health Dr. Ikechukwu Obi, said that the government was encouraging people to go to any primary health care facilities to get tested.

The Ondo state government said it had been taken measures to prevent the spread of the pandemic in the state.