Cocoyam contains rich nutrients to fight COVID-19 infection, a Federal Government agency said yesterday.
Director-General of the Raw Materials Research Fund Development Council (RMRDC) Prof Hussaini Ibrahim listed the nutritional contents in cocoyam as digestible starch, good quality protein, Vitamin C, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and high scores of proteins and essential amino acids.
The RMRDC boss described cocoyam as a neglected crop with more nutritional benefits than cassava and yam. He spoke in Abuja at the presentation of a book: Cocoyam: A crop of choice for nutrition and management of diabetes mellitus.
Represented by Dr. Bola Olugbemi, director of Industrial Extension Services, Hussein said: “Some of the issues of those who fall to COVID-19 are those with diabetes, high blood pressure and some other opportunistic diseases that attacks the immune system and when such people are exposed to COVID-19, they easily fall victims.
“So, what we are saying is that if you can take care of diabetes, then your immune system will be much higher. If you consume cocoyam, your body tends to have higher immune level that can combat the incidents of COVID-19, so cocoyam is very important because you will not fall easily to COVID-19, which is why we say it is a crop of choice to those who have the illnesses that can be attractive to COVID-19.
“Cocoyam is a veritable raw material with a lot of nutrients, with higher protein content than our normal root crops like cassava and yam, it has a lot of essential vitamins as well as minerals that are good for the body. They have materials that reduce instances of disease, cocoyam on its own has what we call low glycemic index.
“Sugar is converted to glycogen, which can be stored in the body so that when you have emergencies, glycogen will be pumped into the system and the body will process it, consuming cocoyam will help because it has two carbohydrate, one fibre and the other we call resistant carbohydrate or starch.
“So, if you have a body that is not functioning very well in terms of insulin production, it is important you consume cocoyam.”
Book author Eberechukwu Emeh said she wrote on cocoyam because it is a crop that has been neglected despite its nutritional value.
MORE COVID-19 infections have been recorded among Corps members with 35 testing positive at the NYSC Orientation camp in Sagamu, Ogun State.
Health Commissioner Dr. Tomi Coker gave the figure yesterday in Abeokuta while briefing reporters on the upsurge of the third wave of the virus in the Gateway State.
Mrs. Coker said some of the infected Corps members had been confined to isolation centres. Others, she said, were on home management.
The commissioner lamented that 69,178 of those who took the first jabs of the AstraZeneca COVID -19 did not return for the second doses.
She said: “The number of NYSC members that have tested positive for Coronavirus is 35. Some are on home management, while some are in the isolation centre.”
The commissioner expressed concern that Ogun had continued to record increases in cases of the infection since the beginning of August with at least seven to 16 cases per day.
The commissioner said: “Ogun State has continued to record a rise in the number of Coronavirus cases with a six-fold increase in admissions into isolation centres compared to what was recorded two months earlier.
”In June, there were only two cases, while in July we recorded a sharp rise to 96 cases. The first three days in August has also seen a rise in positivity rate of 14.6 per cent.
“The Isolation Ward at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, which had only two admissions in June, currently has 12 persons on admission.
“The isolation ward at Ikenne has 35 admissions, with 71 on home management.
“Death toll had remained relatively static at 50 till July 15 after which we recorded seven deaths in the last two weeks.
“In the last one week, there has been a sharp rise in new cases from seven per day to 16 per day,’’ Coker said.
On vaccination, the commissioner expressed worry that only a little fraction of the state’s population had been vaccinated.
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She urged residents to embrace vaccination, saying “our observation so far is that all mortalities are the unvaccinated.’’
According to her, the 126,631 people that took the first jabs represented 136 per cent of the target population for the Phase I.
But 57,453, she lamented, were vaccinated for the second dose, stressing that the foregoing figures represent a very small fraction of the population in the state.
She urged residents to avail themselves of another opportunity that has just come with the commencement the second phase of the vaccination across the state.
