Gyang Bere, Jos

Former National President, Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) and Chief Medical Director of Sauki Hospital Jos, Dr. Sunday Daniel Gana, has said that the Federal Government is not fully prepared to fight the scourge of coronavirus pandemic following the funds released to Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

He noted that not many hospitals in the country have ventilators and steady power supply to sustain victims of the dreaded disease for the required hours on ventilators.

Dr. Gana disclosed this in an interview with Journalists in Jos yesterday and said the only remedy to battle COVID-19- in Nigeria is a total shutdown of the country for people to remain indoors, wash their hands, use the nose mask and sanitizers.

He said the Nigeria government over the years has not been supportive to the health system which has led to steady collapsed of the health sector and currently inadequate capacity to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Related News

“Prevention of the coronavirus remains one of the major ways out for us because we don’t have the capacity to tackle the disease like China and other countries of the world.

“Government should provide ventilators to every General Hospitals, Federal Medical Centres Specialist Hospitals and Teaching Hospitals including private hospitals in the country because the curve is just rising in Nigeria, we must not allow it to get bad or reach the peak.

“Nigeria needs a vibrant task force comprising of professionals that can deliver, not based on Federal Character. The Federal Government task force is not headed by a professional, we need a professional that will be chosen based on competence and merit and not by patronage.

“As at last Friday, Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), the Chairman in charge of coronavirus said he had not received anything from the Federal Government for management and isolating patients for coronavirus.

“Secondly, if adequate number of ventilators for example are provided to JUTH because ventilators are artificial breathing machines and if a patient has some breathing problem that is non-coronavirus, ventilators need to work with uninterrupted power supply for four days for continued supply of oxygen to keep the patients alive and there the challenges arise. Have we strengthened our Ministry of power to give uninterrupted power supply so that the patients don’t die?”