Association of Radiologists in Nigeria (ARIN), has said that the second wave of COVID-19 lockdown is imminent because of rising figures in COVID-19 cases in the past weeks.
Dr Ohikhoakhai Wellington, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Chairman, made the disclosure on Wednesday in Abuja at an event to mark the 2020 International Day of Radiology (IDoR).
The day has the theme, “The Radiologists and Radiographers; Supporting Patients During COVID-19 Pandemic.
He noted that contrary to the belief that confirmed cases of COVID-19 was going down, there had been a spike in the rise of the pandemic in the last few weeks.
“Statistically, recorded cases were going down and it actually got to a level where they thought it was going away, but it has increased in the last few weeks.
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“This is as a result of the relaxation of the lockdown, especially in the airspace.
“The borders here are free, people are now coming freely into our country from all over the world, but we hope that at the borders, we will be strong enough to strictly check people coming in,“ he said.
Wellington said those coming into the country from abroad should be made to go into isolation before getting access into the society.
This, the chairman said, was critical to prevent the second phase of lockdown.
According to him, 2020 has been termed a year of the pandemic because of COVID-19 and its devastating effects in communities, economy and humanity.
Wellington noted that the virus had affected some parts of the body, especially the chest where X-ray was mainly important and the country.
He added that during the process of finding out much on the pandemic, three Radiologists lost their lives.
“We have a report of 49.9 million cases of COVID-19 worldwide and 1.25 million deaths. In Nigeria, above 63,800 reported cases with 1,155 deaths, these deaths include several health workers both at home and abroad.
“The enormity of the effect of the pandemic has in many ways broken some of the many unnecessary man-made barriers that have held us apart, “ he said.
He said that by the nature of the history of the COVID-19 pandemic, Radiologists and Radiographers, Technologists and Nurses found themselves in the forefront of the diagnosis and management of the pandemic.
Wellington said the health personnel were still confronted by myriads of challenges in providing support to patients.
Mr Isaac Udu, Director of Radiography, University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, noted that as one of the hospitals managing COVID-19 patients, the hospital was confronted with many challenges.
This, he said, was particularly with regard to carrying out X-ray on some of the patients as some patients came in very sick making it difficult for them to cooperate when carrying out X-ray on them.
“Another challenge is that space is built with small bed spaces and moving in patients and machines becomes difficult to get in to capture imaging needed, some of these patients are on ventilators,’’ Udu said.
He added that X-ray helped to facilitate the management of patients by giving closer attention whenever necessary and to know how severe a patient’s condition was.
He further added that, in spite of the challenges, Radiologists and physicians had been able to navigate through modification techniques as an alternative, since the normal way might not give the desired result.
He said as at the last count, the hospital had 286 patients of COVID-19, adding that it had been able to X-tray 148 of them for treatment.
Udu said that 90 per cent of the hospital needed to carry out treatment on the 286 patients had been made available by the Federal Government through the effort of the hospital`s Chief Medical Director, Prof. Bissalla Ekele.
Dr Daji Feyisayo, Head of Radiology Department, National Hospital, Abuja also said that the hospital was initially unable to manage patients when the pandemic first started.
He said the situation, however, changed when Radiologist rose to the situation to give a leap in the treatment of COVID-19 patients.
According to her, most people do not believe that COVID-19 exists, stressing that Nigerians should keep on observing measures put in place by the Federal Government to prevent the spread of the disease.