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About 40 percent of all medical supplies for COVID-19 response in Nigeria were supplied by the one United Nations (UN) basket Fund through NCDC
The UN Resident and Humanitarian coordinator Edward Kallon made this known when he led other UN agencies including UNICEF on a delegation to the Enugu state government to reinforce the partnership between them and the Enugu state government and also address the impact of COVID-19 pandemic .
The visit he said would also give the UN the opportunity to accelerate implementation of the SDGs to build back better and to continue to create durable solutions for economic transformation in Enugu.
He said that “UN has been quite strategic in pulling together resources and also delivering as one to support the government of Nigeria in the response of COVID-19. We established the one UN response and also put in place the basket fund, we were able to mobilize $73 million Dollars used to procure medical supplies that were sent to all the States in Nigeria through NCDC.
He described the action as a unique experience from the UN system and one of those experiences that actually shows that coming together, pulling our synergies together; putting together our comparative advantages can make a big difference in supporting the government.
Read also: UN says $73m spent to combat Covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria
According to Kallon, “our mission to Enugu is to meet with the state authorities, that is the state executive council members to actually try to see how we can reinforce our partnership with the Enugu state government to continue supporting them to combat the effect of COVID-19 we also try to see how the UN can bring the best global practices to support the economic transformation effort of the state of Enugu.”
He commended the effort Enugu has made so far, but warned that everybody should be aware that COVID-19, will be here for some time to come and the key issue here is vaccination, vaccinations.
The challenge, he said was how to ensure that 70 percent of the population are vaccinated for high immunity to be reached, “this is also critical and closely link to that is the issue of compliance with pharmaceutical measures”
He therefore appealed to institutions and organizations to ensure people are able to comply with non-pharmaceutical measures, access vaccines so that we can develop the high immunity that is required to manage the COVID-19, pointing out that Covid-19 is here to stay.
“We might be tired of Covid-19 but it is here with us. And WHO advised us that we should sustain our guide, we should continue to test, isolate, quarantine confirmed cases.
Earlier The Resident and Humanitarian coordinator Kallon commended all the other UN agencies in the state for their efforts in supporting development efforts in Enugu state.
He said UNICEF has helped to strengthen the national health management information system (NHIMS) to improve data quality through capacity building, provision of data collection tools and support and provide resources to strengthen routine immunization and OBR both within the health system and communities.
He however advised the agencies to channel resources in areas where they can have impact on people.
