Yahaya Bello, governor of Kogi State, has been accused by the doctors at the state’s Federal Medical Center, Lokoja, for clapping down on efforts to test patients with suspected symptoms of COVID-19.
Contrary to a report released by the state government which claimed that 111 Cases Of COVID-19 were tested and returned negative, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, had said in a situation report released on May 17, that only one patient was tested in the state.
The President of the Association of Resident Doctors, FMC Lokoja, disclosed to the TheCable in a statement on Tuesday, that the continuous lack of testing centres in the state is endangering the life of health workers.
“Many patients with symptoms suggestive of COVID-19 have been seen severally in the hospital but efforts to get them tested were frustrated by the state government authorities,” he said.
“There is a palpable fear at the Federal Medical Centre Lokoja as medical doctors and other health workers raise alarm of imminent danger posed by the Covid-19 pandemic to their lives.
“This was against the backdrop of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) report issued on 17th May 2020 that only a single Covid-19 test has been conducted in Kogi State since the disease was recorded in the country about three months ago.
“The doctors fear that they are at a high risk of contracting the disease and transmitting same to their families and other unsuspecting patients. It is a known fact that without Covid-19 tests, physicians cannot properly categorize and treat the patients coming into the hospital in accordance with the management protocols.”
Nnanna urged the federal ministry of health and the presidential task force on COVID-19 to “rally all relevant stakeholders in Kogi State to ensure that tests are being done to ensure the safety of the healthcare workers as they are now the most-at-risk population in the state”, else matters would be taken into their own hands.
“One cannot underestimate the impact of this disease on the lives of the families who have lost loved ones to it. As at today across the country 603 doctors have been exposed, 149 confirmed positive and 7 deaths recorded. We in FMC Lokoja do not wish to be joined in these statistics,” he said.
READ ALSO: N4.3bn Withdrawal: We Are Not Plotting Akeredolu’s Impeachment -Assembly