The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released 16 million dollars from the WHO Contingency Fund for Emergencies to tackle cholera.

Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General said this during an online news conference.

Ghebreyesus said that the organisation was providing essential supplies, coordinating the on the ground response with partners, supporting countries to detect, prevent and treat cholera, and informing people how to protect themselves.

“To support this work, we have appealed for 160 million dollars, and we have released more than 16 million dollars from the WHO Contingency Fund for Emergencies.

“But the real solution to cholera lies in ensuring everyone has access to safe water and sanitation, which is an internationally recognized human right,” he said.

According to him, in the previous week, WHO published new data showing that cases reported in 2022 were more than double those in 2021.

He said that the preliminary data for 2023 suggested was likely to be even worse.

“So far, 28 countries have reported cases in 2023 compared with 16 during the same period in 2022.

“The countries with the most concerning outbreaks right now are Ethiopia, Haiti, Iraq and Sudan.

“Significant progress has been made in countries in Southern Africa, including Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, but these countries remain at risk as the rainy season approaches,” Ghebreyesus said.

According to him, the worst affected countries and communities are poor, without access to safe drinking water or toilets.

He said that they also face shortages of oral cholera vaccine and other supplies, as well as overstretched health workers, who are dealing with multiple disease outbreaks and other health emergencies.

On COVID-19, Ghebreyesus said that as the northern hemisphere winter approaches, the organisation continued to see concerning trends.

He said that among the relatively few countries that report them, both hospitalisations and ICU admissions have increased in the past 28 days, particularly in the Americas and Europe.

WHO boss said that meanwhile, vaccination levels among the most at-risk groups remained worryingly low.

“Two-thirds of the world’s population has received a complete primary series, but only one-third has received an additional, or “booster” dose.

“COVID-19 may no longer be the acute crisis it was two years ago, but that does not mean we can ignore it,” he said.

According to him, countries invested so much in building their systems to respond to COVID-19.

He urged countries to sustain those systems, to ensure people can be protected, tested and treated for COVID-19 and other infectious threats.

“That means sustaining systems for collaborative surveillance, community protection, safe and scalable care, access to countermeasures and coordination,” he said.

The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Abia Sector Command, has launched this year’s “Ember” months campaign against overloading and speed before and during the Yuletide.

In a speech at the event in Umuahia, the South-East Zonal Commander of the corps, RS9HQ, Mr Ocheja Ameh, said that the campaign would focus on encouraging road users to observe safety measures.

The theme of the campaign is “Speed thrills but kills: Drive responsibly and avoid overloading”.

Ameh said: “The focus of our campaign this year is against overloading, failure to install speed limiting device by commercial vehicles, dangerous driving, lane indiscipline and absence of wipers.

“Also, vehicles that are abusing the use of several lights in the night, other than the factory-fitted ones and use of phone, while driving, amongst others.

“I want to assure you that this year’s campaign will be more vigorous than that of last year, because we want to start early for best results.”

He thanked the government and stakeholders for their support to FRSC programmes, adding that the corps was poised to intensify it’s campaign against violation of safety rules by road users.

The Acting Sector Commander, Mrs Bridget Asekhauno, said that the campaign was targeted at recording minimal road crashes, zero fatalities and free flow of traffic during the Yuletide and going forward.

Asekhauno said that in order to achieve its goal, the command had deployed personnel, operational vehicles and ambulances in all the strategic roads across the state as well as made provision for mobile courts.

She urged drivers to install speed limiting device, use safe tyres in their vehicles and avoid overloading their vehicles with humans and animals, amongst other infractions.

She also said that the command would not hesitate to prosecute violators of any road safety rules and urged road users to cooperate with FRSC personnel deployed in various locations in the state.

In a speech, Gov. Alex Otti of Abia said that the FRSC core mandate of minimising road crashes and fatalities was in line with Abia Government’s agenda to achieve effective traffic management in the state.

The governor, represented by the Commissioner for Transport, Mr Sunny Onwuma, described road safety as a shared responsibility, which makes it important for all drivers to drive safely to save lives.

Otti urged road users to obey traffic rules and regulations to enable them to arrive at their different destinations, safely.

Earlier, the State Chairman, Nigeria Association of Road Transport Owners, Mr Amobi Ohaeri, commended the corps for embarking on a campaign to encourage safe driving.

Ohaeri said that the effort would greatly help to improve the orientation of road users, especially commercial drivers, in driving responsibly and appealed to FRSC to conduct regular enlightenment programmes, particularly in motor parks.

“This campaign should go beyond Ember months.

“Take it to churches, mosques, town hall meetings, because drivers belong to all these places and do consider starting a road safety club for drivers to further drive the message home,” he said.

Also, the State Coordinator of FRSC Special Marshal, Chief Jerry Onyemachi, commended FRSC and the security agencies for their collaborative effort toward keeping the roads safe.

Onyemachi called on the people of Abia to be law-abiding and adhere to the safety measures outlined by FRSC.