Ekiti State has been given an Award of Excellence as the best
performing state in Nigeria on Disease Surveillance at the 4th Annual Disease Surveillance Meeting of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) held in Abuja.
The Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr. Oyebanji Filani who made this known in Ado Ekiti said that the State earned the award through the commitment and untiring efforts of the State government and the support of the leadership and staff of the State Ministry of Health at ensuring health security of Ekiti residents.
Dr. Filani explained that the state had invested in health security
through various projects including building a Molecular Laboratory to enable quick and accurate diagnosis and analysis of samples.
He added that the state has expanded its Covid-19 samples collection centres from 16 to 145 across all the Local Government Areas of the State which had made Covid testing very accessible to all residents in the state.
“We have decentralized our Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) functions to all the 16 Local Government to further strengthening our early warning systems and Surveillance “, He stated.
While commending state government and the leadership of the ministry of health for providing the enabling environment, technical and financial support to achieve such great feat, the Permanent Secretary, Mr. Akinjide Akinleye, revealed that several performance management initiatives were introduced to improve coordination, facilitate knowledge Sharing and quick decision making.
Mr. Akinleye added that routine review meetings at both Local
government and state levels provided an avenue to critically analyse data and identity areas of concern in order to align policy decisions and activities to targets and set objectives
He expressed joy over the award of excellence saying it was a
well-deserved award by the state having worked hard to curtail the spread of diseases and ensuring prompt responses to emergency outbreak in the state.
The Director General Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa who presided over the meeting noted that Ekiti State emerged first as the best performing State across country stating that all indicators used to measure performance showed that Ekiti scores highest mark in Disease surveillance in Nigeria in the year under review.
Dr. Adefila lauded Ekiti state government under the leadership of
Governor Kayode Fayemi for leaving up to expectation of the NCDC on Disease Surveillance, prevention and Control.
