As of Friday, August 14, Sokoto, Kebbi and Kogi states have no COVID-19 patient on admission.

DAILY POST confirmed this from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC)’s website.

Sokoto has had 154 confirmed cases. Out of that number, 138 patients have been discharged, while 16 have died.

In Kogi, there have been five confirmed COVID-19 cases. Three have tested negative and been discharged, while two casualties have been recorded.

Of the 90 cases recorded in Kebbi state, 82 have been discharged and eight patients have died.

On Thursday night, NCDC announced 373 new cases across 24 states in the country.

It brought the total to 48,116 cases. 34,309 have been discharged, while 966 deaths have been recorded.

The Minister of Health Dr Osagie Ehanire said Thursday that the resurgence of COVID-19 infection among health professionals is worrisome.The minister said this at the briefing of the Presidential Task Force on the Control of COVID-19 in Abuja.

“We are concerned by the resurgence of infection in healthcare workers. In a bid to sustain the gains we have made in reducing the rate of infection among our health workers, we have made training and retraining of health workers on infection prevention and control.

“In Abia state, we have concluded the training of 594 Healthcare Workers from private and public health facilities on infection prevention and control. “We are currently investigating healthcare associated infection in a health facility in Kaduna State. Lessons learnt from this will be used to improve service delivery,” he said.The minister called on health workers to be more careful in handling cases to address the worrisome resurgence of the virus among them.”I encourage our health workers not to drop their guards as the pandemic is still with us. Use your PPEs appropriately and judiciously. We have ensured that PPEs are available in all our health facilities,” he said.

The minister also called on Nigerian youth youth to be more careful and take adequate precautions against COVID-19.“This pandemic has had its impact on our young people. As at yesterday, 46 percent of positive cases in the country are young people between ages 21-40. I will therefore appeal to our youths to take responsibility.
“Let us ensure that we adhere to the advisories to wear face masks appropriately, regularly wash your hands and ensure respiratory hygiene.“Our target remains to test one percent of our population across the country. As of today, more than 70 percent of all the tests conducted have been in nine states including Lagos, Kano, FCT, Plateau, Oyo, Kaduna, Edo Ogun Rivers with 25 percent of the tests in Lagos alone. We shall continue to work with state governments to ramp up case findings and sample collection activities,” he said.

The National Pension Commission (PENCOM) says contributors can only move their Retirement Savings Account (RSA) through a transfer window from one Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) to another not more than twice in one year. 

In a statement signed by its management on Thursday in Abuja, PENCOM said full deployment of the platform, would however entail extensive training of the PFA’s relevant personnel and simulation of the processes, industry-wide. 
“The Commission said it has being working assiduously to actualize the provisions of Section 13 of the Pension Reform Act, 2014. Preparatory to the opening of the Transfer Window, the Commission developed and deployed the Enhanced Contributor Registration System (ECRS) in September 2019.

“Furthermore, the Commission has developed the RSA Transfer System (RTS), a robust electronic platform that would enable seamless RSA transfers. Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) would be able to utilize the RTS platform for the submission of RSA transfer requests,” the statement said. 

The pension regulator noted that the nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic, it was unable to deploy the technology. 
“Subsequent to the easing of the lockdown by the Federal Government and the lifting of the ban on interstate travels between the end of June and July, 2020, the preparations for a comprehensive training plan was concluded.

“Accordingly,, the Commission is currently holding workshops on the RTS for the Pension Operators, which would run from August 10-28, 2020. It is also expected that in line with the plan, Operators will participate in an industry simulation of transfer processes and simulations in September 2020.
“The opening of the transfer window will facilitate full and equitable pension assets portability within the pension industry, enhance ethical competition amongst the PFAs and improve service delivery to RSA holders,” it said.

The Commission is optimistic that all necessary preparations will take place to enable opening of the RSA Transfer Window by the end of 2020.
Ends.