Ekiti State has confirmed that its 4th COVID-19 case is a medical doctor working with a private clinic who contracted the virus while treating a pregnant woman.
The 29-year-old pregant woman, a health officer with the Lagos State Government, was announced as the third case in the state by Governor Kayode Fayemi on Saturday.
Speaking to journalists in Ado-Ekiti on Tuesday, the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Mojisola Yaya-Kolade, said only one doctor tested positive while 15 others tested negative for the virus after blood samples were taken to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) lab.
Yaya-Kolade said the 4th case is currently being treated at the state’s isolation centre.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Medical Association(NMA), Ekiti chapter, has called for adequate protection for medical workers through provision of life insurance and other measures while expressing happiness on the medical officers who tested negative.
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According to the Chairman of the association, Dr. Tunji Omotayo, the government needs to do better in terms of the present ridiculous hazard allowance being tpaid to medical workers.
He said, “We are very happy that 15 doctors from FETHI were tested negative. This is a cheering news to us and it confirmed the level of professionalism and precautionary measures being taken by our men.
“We learnt that the colleague found to have tseted positive had been taken to the isolation centre for proper treatment and the hope is high that he would soon recover.
“But there are some salient issues that government must tackle. As of now, doctors are being paid N5,000 hazard allowance monthly while our colleagues in the universities take N30,0000. You can see how ridiculous the situation was.
“The government said only workers working at the isolation centre will have their hazard allowances increased, but they must know that the patients will first come to the hospitals where they have contacts with our members and our colleagues are more at risk, because that is where the disease is discovered before the patient is taken to isolation.
“Having done the necessary risk assessment under Covid 19 situation, we are demanding that our colleagues should be put on life insurance and the government must increase hazard allowance to all categories of medical workers during this Coronavirus period.
“Added to that is the need to provide adequate safety kits like apron, booths, goggles , gloves and other safety kits that can make our less predisposed to this deadly disease.”