The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) has confirmed at least 20 Nigerian doctors dead from COVID-19 complications in the last one week.
Enema Amodu, The chairman of NMA (Federal Capital Territory Chapter), announced this during a press conference in Abuja, on Friday.
He further disclosed that among the victims were Professors, Consultants, and a couple of Resident Doctors.
Amodu lamented the alarming death rate rocking the health sector as regards the novel coronavirus.
”For those of us in the health sector, we have lost quite a number of colleagues. Across the country, we have lost not less than 20 doctors in the last one week,” Amodu said.
Amodu called for decisive steps to be taken in the wake of the second wave of the pandemic currently ravaging the world.
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He blamed the tragic outcome of this second wave on noncompliance to nonpharmaceutical measures put in place to check the spread of the virus.
“The world is already facing the second wave of the pandemic and this is so overwhelming. The second wave is more catastrophic because a lot of people have gone back to their ways of doing things,” the NMA said.
According to Amodu, many doctors who contracted the coronavirus did so because of inadequate knowledge of patients’ medical history and travels.
Amodu called on patients to desist from hiding their previous medical records.
This, he stated, was capable of putting the country’s health workers in harms way.
“To our patients, as you come to the hospitals, please oblige us. Wear your face masks, tell us the truth about your past medical condition. Stop holding any information back,” he said.
Nigeria is one of the many nations of the world presently being rocked by the Covid-19 pandemic.
There was cause for more concerns when, last week Wednesday, Britain announced the emergence of a new strain of the deadly virus.