Ehanire: 113 Nigerian health workers infected with coronavirus

TRACKING___Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire has debunked reports that 300 health workers were infected by the coronavirus.

In the briefing today as a member of Presidential Task Force briefing, Ehanire said 113 health workers were infected.

“The over 300 doctors that are infected is not true. There are not so many people in the health sector who are infected,” he said.

“The latest figures we have is that they are about 113 actually.”

He also said not all infected health workers are from the public sector.

“Some are from private hospitals”, he said.

He condemned the frequent rate at which COVID-19 patients are being treated in private hospitals without health workers taking the necessary precautions and training.

However, he disclosed that the Federal Government is working on local production of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to support frontline workers in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ehanire advised healthcare workers who felt they could not handle the pandemic to speak up, noting nobody would be forced or conscripted to join.

He urged healthcare workers who had been trained on infectious disease control to sustain the fight against the pandemic.

“Healthcare workers who have no training have no business handling coronavirus, ” he said.

The minister said that daily laboratory testing capacity for COVID-19 has been increased to 2,500 in the 15 molecular diagnosis laboratories across the country.

Of the 1,728 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Nigeria on Wednessday, 307 have been treated and discharged, while 51 died.