Skip to main content

Nigeria Is In A State Of War With COVID-19 – Nigerian Health Workers’ Unions

The Alliance for Surviving COVID-19 And Beyond (ASCAB) and other unions of health workers have said Nigeria is in a state of war with the COVID-19 pandemic.

This comes amidst the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in Nigeria with over 100, 000 confirmed cases.


Alliance on Surviving COVID-19 And Beyond (ASCAB) is a coalition of over 80 civil society organisations (CSOs) and organised labour, led by human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN).

In a statement signed by Falana on behalf of the groups, the health workers warned that the second wave of the pandemic may record higher casualty figures unless immediate and drastic efforts are taken.

The groups condemned the Nigerian authorities for not including scientists in its various committees, stating that this would undermine efforts to develop indigenous vaccine as a long-term strategy of fighting the pandemic.

They therefore called for inclusion of health workers, experts and scientists to take the lead in the fight against COVID-19.

The statement partly read, “That experts, including scientists, take the lead in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. To this end, scientists should be included in the existing committees and given critical roles. That a comprehensive response plan should be put in place to ensure that we can win the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The health workers during a recent virtual meeting also called for e-payment of a decent and befitting hazard allowance to all officials in the health sector, provision of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) and consequent training on the use of the equipment, comprehensive insurance for all workers in the health sector, payment of all outstanding salary arrears and better funding and investment in the health sector, among others.

They warned of dire consequences if the federal and state governments privatise institutions and services in the health sector, while stressing that substantial investment and training of health workers should be done. 

The statement read, “What is required is substantial investment in the health sector and the urgent training of all workers, including ancillary health workers.

“Even so, the majority of Nigerians suffer far more from other diseases which could easily be prevented or treated, especially those in the informal sector, would suffer far more from any possible return to lockdowns.

“We have always had a vaccine for hunger – it is food.  So far, we have suffered far lower levels of COVID-19 than Europe and North America, for example, but this could easily change with the new strains from South Africa and Britain, which are far more infectious.”

ASCAB and the health workers also said they would establish a solidarity forum and a COVID-19 Situation Room as a citizens response initiative to monitor compliance and issue periodic reports on what needs to be done.

Alliance on Surviving COVID-19 And Beyond (ASCAB) is a coalition of over 80 civil society organisations (CSOs) and organised labour.

ASCAB is made up of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU); Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), Nigeria Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP), National Association of Community Health Practitioners (NACHP) and the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN).

PUBLIC HEALTH

News

AddThis

: 

Original Author

: 

SaharaReporters, New York

Disable advertisements

: 

from 24HRSNEWS
via 24HRSNEWS



from EDUPEDIA247https://ift.tt/2MVMvDN
via EDUPEDIA

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

N2.5bn Fraud: You Have Case To Answer, Appeal Court Tells Suspended NBC Boss, Kawu

The Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, Ishaq Kawu. The Court of Appeal, sitting in Abuja, has dismissed an appeal filed by the suspended Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission, Dr Moddibbo Kawu, challenging the decision of the Federal High Court, to dismiss the no-case submission he filed at the lower court. The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission had charged Kawu, Lucky Omoluwa (late Chairman of Pinnacle Communications Ltd) and Dipo Onifade, Chief Operating Officer of the same company, before Justice Folashade Ogunbanjo-Giwa, on a 12-count charge of money laundering. Is'haq Modibbo Kaw THISDAYLIVE The suspended NBC boss and his co-accused then approached the appellate court to reverse the judgment of the Federal High Court. The appellate dismissed the no-case submission filed by Kawu and his co-accused and held that they had an explanation to give when he elected to facilitate the payment of ...

Buhari’s Legacy Of Recessions By Fredrick Nwabufo

Fredrick Nwabufo ‘Why always Buhari?’ As it was in 1984 under General Buhari, so it is in 2016 and 2020 under President Buhari? Is it by the unfortunate hands of kismet that recession hits Nigeria every time Buhari takes charge of the country’s affairs? If the recession of the 80s under Buhari was a conspiracy by economic and political factors, to what do we attribute that of his first coming as a civilian President — and now in his second coming? Why does pestilence scourge the land, hunger ravage the population and lives lost malevolently when Buhari presides over the country? Why always Buhari? Buhari’s undoing is his wonted predilection for hierarchising ethnicity, religion and loyalty above competence. Since 1999, no President has obtrusively shown a more nepotistic aspect than Buhari. It is unarguable that the President arrays the most competence-challenged cabinet ever in the chronicle of governance in Nigeria. Yes, a recession cabinet. Fredrick Nwabufo Here is a cabin...

TYPES OF DRAMA II

Comedy: We use the words 'comedy' and comic to describe something that is funny in our everyday lives. These include a joke or a fantastic story that is full of nonsense, or an absurd appearance that makes us giggle, smile or laugh. Comedy is not inherent in things or people but the way things/people are perceived. Comedy is a deliberate presentation of events/experiences drawn from real life but not the same with real life. We should therefore not expect dramatic comedy to be the same as real life. Generally, the plays have good endings or resolutions, so when a play ends happily, we refer to it as comedy. In most comedies, the principal characters begin in a state of opposition either to one another or to their world or both. By the end of the play their opposition .is replaced by harmony. Aristotle in-.his “Poetics” insisted that in tragedy men are shown “better than they are”, while in comedy “worse than they are”. For him it is an artistic imitation of men of inferi...