At least 20 medical doctors have died as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in the last 7 days, the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) has said.
Enema Amodu, Chairman of the NMA in Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory revealed this on Friday as he called on the government to provide more PPEs.
Amodu described the second wave as catastrophic, as he urged Nigerians to protect themselves and called on the government to help medical doctors.
“We are skilled, trained personnel to handle emergency conditions, and we need things to work with. We need ICUs; we need drugs; we need face masks; we need PPEs; we need hand sanitisers,” he said.
“This second wave is so overwhelming. This second wave is more catastrophic and this probably will be because a lot of people have gone back to the way of doing things. They thought the virus is over; it has come and it is gone and they’ve let their guards down.
“For those of us in the health sector, we’ve lost quite a number of colleagues in the last one week alone. Across the country, we have lost not less than 20 doctors in the last one week.”
He advised patients to provide veritable information for medical practitioners, especially on complications they may have had as a result of the infection.
“We are not in any way demeaning anybody or insulting anybody. When you sit before a doctor, ensure the safe distance and comply. And when the doctor asks if there is any other problem, please be gracious enough to let them know if you’ve either just survived COVID-19, you’re on treatment for COVID-19, or your family member is on treatment for COVID-19. Please be honest,” he said.
