The Centre for Citizens with Disability (CCD) has called on federal and state governments to carry out more Covid-19 tests for people with disabilities (PwDs), even as it urged improved palliatives to them.
On the outcome of a survey carried out among the blind, the deaf and the physically challenged in Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Lagos, Kaduna and Kano states, to assess the impact of Covid-19 lockdown, strategies to curb the spread of the disease and palliative models in Nigeria, CCD noted that PwDs were not adequately covered.
Speaking in a virtual press briefing on Friday, the CCD Resource Person, Mr. Godwin Unumeri, told journalists that though there was good awareness among the PwDs on Covid-19 obtained through the media and faith-based organisations, there was “knowledge gap on how they can avoid the disease, poor attitude to the disease and how to curb its spread.”
He said, “Provisions should be made for the screening of PwDs for Covid-19 so that those infected can benefit from the free treatment by government. There is need for improvement in the communication to beneficiaries and distribution of palliatives by the inclusion of PwDs leaders in the process.
“Strategies sensitive to the blind, deaf and physically challenged should be adopted to educate PwDs. They should be trained and involved in delivering the information through: Braille for the blind, sign language interpreters for the deaf and bold prints for the sighted.
“There is need to re-design the administrative component of the Covid-19 palliative support scheme to effectively cover more PwDs as beneficiaries before they are compelled to adopt survival behaviours capable of undermining government efforts at controlling spread of the disease.”
