COVID-19: FG advocates adherence to adopted change

The federal government has emphasised the importance of maintaining behavioral change in order to successfully contain the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

The Director, Family Health Department, Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) Dr Boladale Alonge, made the appeal during the close-out ceremony of the Hygiene and Behaviour Change Coalition (HBCC 2) programme.

Alonge said that irrespective of the health status of the populace, health hygiene rules were always important.

She also said that it was very important to get people vaccinated and immunised.

While talking about the programme, the director said that it was done in collaboration with FMOH and Population Services International Nigeria (PSIN), and was majorly about health promotion activities and packages especially during the COVID-19 period.

According to her, it was a very impactful collaboration used in developing messages on the basic rules to prevent infection.

Director, Health Promotion Division, FMOH, Dr Ladidi Bako-Aiyegbusi, said that from all indications, the nation was indeed winning the battle against COVID-19 pandemic.

This, she said, was because people are being encouraged to adhere to all the preventive measures and they are complying.

She, however, said that the HBCC 2 programme (The Hygiene and Behaviour Change Coalition) supported FMOH to disseminate preventive messages against COVID-19 to Oyo, Osun, Kano, Nasarawa, Lagos states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

She added that materials were produced in English, Yoruba, and Hausa languages while radio and TV jingles were also produced in the three languages, ensuring that standard methods for health communication material development were adhered to.

Bako-Aiyegbusi, however, said that the close-out ceremony for the one-year programme was to get the implementers at the state levels to recount their experiences, challenges and achievements and make recommendations about them.

The Head of Programmes, PSIN, Dr Fatima Bunza, said “Now that the project is closing out, by virtue of the way the project was implemented, quite a number of resources were generated in partnership with the FMOH and these resources have been archived by the government at all levels.

Dr Isiaka Adekunle, Director, Health Planning Research and Statistics, Osun state Ministry of Health, said that the programme has helped the state in preparation for pandemics because looking at the situation all over, one of the major keys in the management of diseases, whether COVID-19 or other communicable diseases, is health promotion activities.