National Covid-19 Pandemic Multi-Sectoral Response Plan, 2020

The national response plan ensures that the country emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic with minimal negative impact to the population, health system and the economy. The aim of the plan is to provide a framework for the government of Nigeria to achieve four major objectives including; to provide a coordinated and effective national and sub-national response to the COVID-19 pandemic; to reduce COVID-19 related morbidity and mortality; to mitigate pandemic-related impacts on critical social, economic and health infrastructure and systems; and to facilitate post-pandemic recovery and rehabilitation operations. In responding to the pandemic, the plan proposes to respond to the emergency through six phases; the preparedness and no cases phase; the mitigation and response to sporadic cases phase; the intensified response to clusters of connected cases phase; the peak of the pandemic due to community transmission phase; post peak phase; and post-pandemic recovery phase. The national response to the pandemic is to be coordinated and directed by the Presidential Task Force, who directly reports to the President. The plan provides extensively for the composition, coordination and hierarchy of the Covid-19 response team who are to function in a joint and linear level from local to state and national levels. The implementation plan is approached from both a national level and sub-national level; at the national level, the presidential task force provides coordination, strategy and policy guidance and the Federal Ministry of Health is in charge of case management as well as isolation and treatment centers, research, communication and healthcare at point of entry, among other things, while at the sub-national level, each state and the Federal Capital Territory is to constitute a task force to provide overall coordination of the response, the states also follow a pattern that mirrors the national level. The federal government is charged with providing resources for the preparedness and response operations of state and national level entities while the monitoring and evaluation framework is spearheaded by the presidential task force.