The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has decried the stance of the Governments of Kogi and Cross River states to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) guidelines on testing, warning that it could seriously imperil the whole national response to controlling COVID-19 pandemic.
A visit by a team of the NCDC to Kogi this week to verify the status of the fight against coronavirus in that state ended abruptly as the government insisted that the visitors must quarantined and test for the virus before they could be allowed to carry out their mission.
Kogi State has maintained that it has not recorded any case of the coronavirus.
NMA therefore, appealed to the Federal Government to direct through the Presidential Task Force (PTF) an investigation into the claims by the two state governments in the interest of safeguarding Nigeria’s Public Health, and to recommend appropriate remedial intervention if necessary, to President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Association said while it would be a welcome news for a ‘no-positive-case’ status in any state or FCT, every state must ensure that it is following the testing guideline so that no cases are missed adding that the development has also made it difficult for the NCDC to discharge it’s duties.
“Apart from threats and in some instances, prevention from collecting and testing samples of suspected cases of COVID-19; the pronouncements of some political leaders constitute outright interference in NCDC’s coordination of case treatment for effectiveness and learning lessons,” the association said.
The NMA in a statement on Saturday titled “preparing for the worst case scenario”, and signed by its president Francis Faduyile, said it has reviewed the policies, programs and activities implemented so far in the management of the COVID-19 outbreak in Nigeria makes and his come up with some solutions.
On shortage of test kits and difficulty in collecting samples despite the announced increased capacity of 50,000 samples per day in 21 laboratories in the country, NMA balmed the problem on poor coordination, poor planning, poor forecasting and slow response to developments by the coordinating authorities.
“This depressing development saddens NMA because it will wipe away the efforts made so far by the Government, PTF and Nigerians in the public reaction against COVID-19 pandemic”, it said.
The charged the PTF and the NCDC to find the fastest workable solutions to fix this challenge, including incorporating the approved private sector laboratories that already have established specimen pick up and transport modalities,” the association urged.
The Association had recently expressed its misgivings about the premature easing of the lockdown given that the number of infected persons is still on the increase, as is the death toll across the country from CIVID-19.
On Friday, May 8, the NCDC confirmed 386 new cases, raising the country’s total infections to 3912, with 679 discharged and 117 dead.
“This spike is a clear evidence that the peak has not been reached, not to talk of ‘flattening the curve’. The NMA is not oblivious of the socio-political and economic implications of continued lockdown, and the attendant hunger and acute deprivation in the population,” it said.
NMA maintained that the solution is not to loosen the lockdown prematurely, but for government to provide robust and widened palliatives’ policy and its practical and urgent implementation.
The NMA also advised that government uses the period of the lockdown to increase capacity and capability of doctors and health workers, and ramp up population testing which is the only reliable barometer to predict community transmission and prevalence.
The Association said it was dismayed that doctors and other health workers still do not have adequate PPEs and therefore opt for the local production of PPEs “in a nation where textile materials are not in short supply.”
It further demanded strongly the implementation of special risk allowance and insurance for health workers. The NMA appealed to the Federal Government to call on the State governments to make public the incentives in the form of Risk/Hazard/inducement allowances and life insurance policies they are offering their healthcare employees.
On tax Exemption on Allowances during COVID-19, the association called for an exemption from PAYE Tax, explaining that any taxation at this time would contradict the government’s laudable spirit of incentivising healthcare workers to deliver service needed to defeat COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria.
On the Infectious Diseases Control Bill 2020, NMA called for the withdrawal of the Bill entirely and redrafting it, to remove any existing and future doubts in the people and public outcry against specific provisions of the Bill.
