Doctors raise alarm over increasing coronavirus cases in northern Nigeria

The Northwest Caucus of Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), on Friday, raised the alarm over the increasing rate of confirmed cases of Coronavirus in north part of the country.

NARD in a statement signed by Muuta Ibrahim and Emmanuel Joseph, Secretary and Vice-Chairman respectively expressed worry that the confirmed cases in Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Jigawa and Sokoto States is becoming the next epicenter of the virus.

The association noted that there were clear indications of community spread of the virus, as most of the cases in the north, had no prior travel history.

It stressed that this could worsen the situation of doctors in the region, adding that the safety and wellbeing of health personnel must be taken seriously by the government, if the country was to win the war against Conoravirus.

“As at April 20, 2020, the NCDC has conducted over seven thousand tests in Nigeria, and our region has 83 confirmed cases out of 665 nationwide.

“This accounts for 12.5 per cent of national burden of COVID-19 cases.

“Although the cases were lower than other regions, with two out of 22 deaths in the country, it is alarming that these numbers were on the upward trajectory daily, with the northwest region fast becoming the neo-epicentre in the country.

“There has been an influx of persons from other affected parts of the country despite the lockdown measures by the government to contain the disease spread.

“Worsening the situation is the continuous inadequate provision of necessary Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) by various hospital managements.

“With reports that some hospitals do not readily make these available; others claimed unavailability due to lack of funding by the government to the teaching hospitals in the fight against this scourge.”

They, however, commended other healthcare workers, the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Government and Nigerians for the efforts to combat the pandemic