The Rivers Government has cautioned the Nigeria Medical Association, NMA against playing politics with its fight against the global COVID-19 pandemic with a claim that the State is poorly managing the virus following reports that 82 Health workers have been infected.
The NMA Rivers State branch had said 22 doctors and 60 other health workers have tested positive to COVID-19 in the State.
NMA Chairman in Rivers state, Dr. Obulebra Adebiyi had said that healthcare delivery in Rivers State was facing so many challenges, including shortages of Personal Protective Equipment needed to battle COVID-19.
“The number of cases in Rivers State moved from zero, in less than 8 weeks, to about 450 confirmed cases with 21 deaths. This is a worrisome situation. More worrisome to us is the rising cases of infection among health workers.
“Currently, 22 doctors and over 60 health workers have been confirmed positive and are receiving treatment across different isolation centres in the state”, she said.
But those claims did not go down well with the Rivers State government.
State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Princewill Chike said it was also untrue that health care workers were all infected because they lacked PPEs.
Chike added that the State Government has provided sufficient PPEs for all the designated State treatment centres and at all levels of care in our public facilities.
According to him, “While we do not wish to join issues with her at this stage of the pandemic, it is important to state very categorically that the data is baseless and the assumptions in the press statement are totally untrue and misconstrued for personal reasons.
“It is incorrect to say that 82 health care workers are infected with COVID in the State. This data is false and does not match the PCR laboratory data or the numbers on the national data repository of the NCDC. One, therefore, wonders what gain comes from the deliberate distortion of figures in the grandstanding. The NMA should be seen as a courageous partner and not a panic creating machine in this pandemic and the State is willing, able and ready to partner with NMA for better health outcomes.
“Indeed, early in the pandemic, the State Government donated large quantities of complete PPE sets to the AGPMPN, tertiary health care institutions in the State and other high volume facilities. This exercise is still ongoing. It is quite important to note that only one out of the six standard pillars in IPC, concerns the use of PPE. Use of PPE as a safety measure and is usually employed as a last resort when all other measures for hazard control become inadequate. More so, proper use of PPE is equally important in ranking as its availability. These facts ought to be examined holistically before making sweeping and dangerous statements that can misguide the general public.
“In fact, in the course of this pandemic, we have seen retired health care workers who are no longer in any form of practice being diagnosed with COVID despite not seeing patients.
“The NMA chairman ought to know that the rising number is not only a reflection of a national trend but a true demonstration of the increased testing capacity in the State with 4 active PCR machines dedicated to COVID diagnosis and running at the RSUTH. It is common knowledge that states that test more find more. A containment case-finding strategy supported by WHO. We can’t play ostritch and refuse to test our people in order to please the NMA chairman.
“Government has shown consistent commitment to slowing down the natural progress of the pandemic despite the security compromise at our borders that led to more importation of the virus into the State. No amount of blackmail and fallacy can change these facts which have been amply demonstrated in the past three months.
“The public is advised to discountenance the press statement which is untrue, based on faulty assumptions and crafted to cause panic.”
