Most Rev. Ignatius Kaigama, the Archbishop of Abuja Catholic Archdiocese, has appealed to the Federal Government to provide additional Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for health workers to reduce spread of Coronavirus.
Kaigama made the call while speaking with News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Tuesday.
The Archbishop said that facilities should be made available for health workers who were risking their lives to treat sick people and patients.
“There should be provision for more people to get tested and provision for health care workers to be equipped with PPE so that they don’t need to run away from patients.
“That I have malaria may not be COVID-19 and that I have fever, I should be well received in the hospital.
“Government is quite formidable in the way they try to combat the virus.
“The only thing we advise is to do things a little better, to restructure the way they are responding so that we have adequate testing facility and enough facilities for the health workers,’’ Kaigama said.
According to him, doctors are afraid when they hear that someone has fever, cough and sore throat and so face masks should be easily available to protect themselves too.
Kaigama said those people that tested positive should be provided with good isolation centres to hasten their recovery.
“If the isolation centres are not conducive, people will not be willing to open up when they are suspected to have the virus,’’ he said.
Kaigama called on churches, corporate organisations, groups, and individuals to support the effort of the government.
“We should be helping government at this time; this is not the time to play politics, we can see that government is interested in combating COVID-19,” the Archbishop said. (NAN)