The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, on Monday, directed the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, to ensure that the Chinese doctors coming to Nigeria to fight Coronavirus undergo medical checks.
The Speaker gave the directive during a meeting between the leadership of the House, Ehanire and the Minister of State for Health, Olorunnimbe Mamora.
Gbajabiamila noted that the measure is to allay the fears of Nigerians who have expressed concerns about the potential of the spread of the virus through the Chinese Doctors.
There are a lot of complaints about why we are bringing in Chinese doctors.
“It is incumbent on us, as lawmakers, to intervene, following the concerns of our constituents to understand the issues and get the right information to them.
“Our duty is to protect the Nigerian people, and every opportunity to increase our knowledge will not be thrown away.
“Having listened to you, what we are taking away from this meeting is that Nigeria needs this intervention from the Chinese, but you have to make it mandatory that they observe all the protocols laid down for the disease.
“As you explained that they won’t have direct contact with Nigerian patients, you have to make sure that they go through our official immigration laws, they have to get work permit waivers because they are coming here to work.
“Also, they have to be quarantined for 14 days as stipulated by the protocol, and you have to educate Nigerians about this to avoid misconceptions. We have laws and they must be complied with,” the Speaker said.
In his response, Mamora said, “Case testing is the bulk of work because some people are asymptomatic, so we need faster and rapid test kits and processing. We are doing molecular testing that helps us know the viral load as well.
“We need to expand our testing labs across the country. Presently, we have two lab scientists in molecular testing, serving seven labs across the country. As we are expanding across the country, we need more people to be trained in molecular testing for faster results.”
