COVID -19 patients seeking alternative treatment, FG laments
Donate your buildings as isolation centres, minister begs Nigerians
Sanwo - Olu blames late border , airport closure for spread


The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire , on Thursday, revealed that 113 health workers had been infected with COVID -19 .
Ehanire , who disclosed this at the press briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID- 19 in Abuja , said they included workers in the public and private health facilities.
He , therefore, reiterated his advice to health workers that it was dangerous to treat coronavirus patients without using personal protective equipment.
The minister had , at the task force media briefing in Abuja on April 23, said about 40 health workers in the country had tested positive for coronavirus .
Ehanaire , who lauded health workers for their commitment to the war against COVID- 19, warned them against treating patients without the PPE .
He said , “ Please, do not treat any patient without using the PPE. Frontline health workers must undertake refresher training at intervals . This warning has become necessary due to the number of health workers , who have tested positive for COVID- 19. They are over 40 now and they have been quarantined . ”
But the Nigerian Medical Association, through its National President, Dr Francis Faduyile, in its reaction , said most of those who contracted COVID- 19 were not health workers treating COVID -19 patients , but personnel in other hospitals.
On Thursday, the health minister said the risk of being infected with COVID- 19 was the reason why the task force warned health workers against treating patients without using the PPE .
He said , “ The latest figure we have is that 113 health workers have been infected. They are not all public health workers . There are some from private hospitals .
“ If you hear us speak frequently against treating coronavirus in private clinics, we are actually referring to people who do so without precaution and training . They risk infecting themselves and their families . Health care workers with no training have no business handling coronavirus .
“ As for those who do not have equipment , we have said that we will provide the protective equipment . Let me remind you that there is a global shortage. They ( the pieces of equipment ) are really scarce but we are doing what we can to make sure our frontline workers have the requirement. We also have a stockpile that we can send quickly. For example, we sent a stockpile to Kano . ”
COVID -19 patients seeking alternative treatment , FG raises the alarm
The minister also stated that the country would be in a difficult position if infected persons continued to hide or seek alternative treatment instead of approaching government .
He added, “ People should come out and seek treatment, not to hide. The ones that we worry most about are the people who hide and look for alternative treatment. They are lost to our counting .”
Quit , if you can ’ t cope , minister tells frontline health workers
The minister noted that health care workers went through a lot of pressure during a crisis period . He called on those who could not handle the pressure to quit .
He , however , said that government would continue to provide mental health and counselling support for those feeling the impact of the pressure.
He said , “ It is very important for health care workers to realise that nobody is forced . Everybody is a volunteer. Those who cannot handle it have the option of being asked to be excused and someone else will come in .”
The minister allayed the fear of survival for those infected with COVID- 19, saying that enough evidence had shown that the majority of infected persons would survive the virus .
“ The recovery rate is 95 per cent or more. Out of 100 people that are infected , about 80 of them will have mild or no symptoms . Fifteen will have fairly severe symptoms , but not critical , while less than five per cent will have critical symptoms .
“ What this means is that nobody really needs to be afraid . It is a dangerous disease that can affect a large number of people and bring health system to its knees. The five per cent can be so many, but there is no need to have a stigma .”
Donate your buildings as isolation centres , minister begs Nigerians
He said as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control aimed to test two million people in the next three months more buildings would be needed as isolation centres.
The minister stated , “ I have appealed to citizens to make their property available temporarily for this purpose . I am sure that after that , there are many property owners who will come up and donate to state governments for a period of time to be used for this function.
“ We are not out of space now but we are making the appeal ahead of time so that we have these facilities ready . ”
Ehanire said that he was aware that the hazard allowance of health workers in the frontline of COVID -19 fight was being negotiated, but said that it did not include that of environmental health personnel .
Ehanire stated also that test capacity of the 15 laboratories in Nigeria had reached 2500. He, therefore, called on Nigerians to take advantage of the facilities.
source: https://punchng.com/infected-health-workers-rise-from-40-to-113-in-one-week/

Lack of protective equipments.

The minister was asking people to release their properties for isolation center ! What does that imply? We are in for serious show .
The so call front line health workers are not the ones with 1st exposure to the virus as they have PPE to use . The health workers in the emergency , Who see the the patient 1st , they are the ones that make a provision diagnosis of COVID19 thus sending PX for test before moving them to isolation center if positive .
This if u really want to protect us , u should make PPE available in all tertiary hospital . All patient should be seen with PPE and tested before being moved to the ward if negative .
Primary and second centre should do the same.
All private hospital should go procure PPE or shunt down for now . The virus is with us more than how we think.

This is serious. My thoughts and prayers are with our health workers at this difficult period.