COVID-19: 113 health workers infected, says minister

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About 113 health workers have tested positive for COVID-19 infection across the country, the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, has stated.

He admonished that only healthcare workers who have training in infectious diseases control should be handling coronavirus patients.

Ehanire, who disclosed this at the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja, explained it was important for healthcare workers who feel they cannot handle the outbreak to speak up because nobody is forced or conscripted in the fight against coronavirus.

He said: “There are not so many people in the health sector who are infected.

“Latest figures we have is that there are about 113 and they are not all public health workers. There are good numbers from private hospitals.

“If you hear us speaking here frequently against trying to treat coronavirus in private clinics, we are actually referring to those people who do so without having necessary precautions and training because they risk infecting themselves and go home and give this infection to their family.

“Healthcare workers who have no training have no business handling coronavirus.

“As for those who do not have protective equipment we have said that we have provided personal protective equipment (PPE) for those who are out there.

“It is important for healthcare workers to understand that nobody is forced or conscripted to handle the coronavirus.

“Those who cannot handle it have the option of requesting to be excused and someone else will come in.

“The pressure on health care workers if they have a crisis can be quite severe and I do think that mental health counseling can be extended to those who feel they are impacted in that way.”

He said that the daily laboratory testing capacity for COVID-19 has been increased to 2,500 in the 15 molecular diagnosis laboratories across the country.

“The active community transmission is illustrated by the increasing number of confirmed persons who have COVID-19.

“This is a major challenge and necessitates a call on all citizens to take COVID-19 infection seriously, and take ownership of their health and strictly adhere to public health advisories.”

The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control(NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, explained that it would no longer wait for persons suspected of having the virus to call but its staff will now be going into communities to actively find and test people that fit its case definition.

“We are in the process of scaling up testing across the country and the key component that has changed in this, at least in Lagos, Abuja and Kano, instead of waiting for people to call us, we are now going to where the patients are.

“We have set up specific testing locations, Of course in collaboration and under the leadership of the states in these three states to increase the throughput of samples being collected from cases that actually do meet the case definition.

“We are not waiting for patients to come but we are going into the community, health centres to identify people that need this case definition and bring them in.”