There is a resurgence of COVID-19 in China following the relaxation of the country’s zero-COVID policy, as well as significantly increased COVID-19 cases, admissions, and deaths in the United Kingdom and the United States of America over the past weeks driven partly by the usual winter exacerbations of respiratory illnesses. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has maintained that country-targeted travel restrictions including requests for PCR-negative tests from incoming travellers had little or no effect on preventing global and national circulation of omicron since the emergence of this variant and its relatives with their shorter incubation period.

The President of the National Association of Resident Doctors, Dr Emeka Orji, said the government should make plans to protect its citizens from a resurgence of COVID-19.

Orji said, “We need to act now because we don’t even have enough doctors to handle the current challenges we have in the health sector.

If we now have a major pandemic, it will only worsen the situation because what we have at hand now, we don’t even have enough medical personnel to take care of them and that is why you have an increase in waiting time in the hospital and rescheduling of surgeries.”

Also, the President of the Academy of Medicine Specialities of Nigeria, Prof Oladapo Ashiru, said the country must act fast to prevent another pandemic.

Anybody coming from China must come with a negative COVID-19 test, they must be screened and they must guard their contacts and maintain vigilance and after they come with a negative test, they must repeat the test after a week. If we don’t do that, we are going to be in a problem,” he said.

The President of the Association of Nigerian Private Medical Practitioners, Dr Kayode Adesola, also urged the government to restrict travellers from China to avoid a resurgence in the country.

“Prevention is better than cure and that is the more reason the government needs to act on preventing any case from China. They should not think of whatever they gain from China but think of the ultimate thing, which is life,” he said.

On his part, the Chairman of the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives, Lagos State Council, Olurotimi Awojide, said nurses were concerned that the government is yet to impose restrictions on travellers from China.

“The government should be proactive and not wait until we have cases before placing restrictions. The world is a global village and we are closely connected. I am worried because we don’t have the human capacity to cope with any pandemic at this time and people have gone back to their normal activities; people need to be very cautious again,” Awojide said.

This comes on the heels of the strike by doctors across Nigeria under the aegis of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD).

JOHESU and AHPA had suspended their planned industrial action billed to commence yesterday, over unmet demands following an understanding it had with the government. But rising from an emergency meeting of the expanded National Executive Council, NEC, the Unions, yesterday. gave the government another 15 days to accelerate the process and fulfil their demands.

In a communiqué signed by the Acting National General Secretary, JOHESU, Comrade Mathew Ajorutu, on behalf of the group, the NEC-in-Session unanimously adopted a resolution to step down the notice of strike due to expire last night and issue a fresh notice of 15 days.

They further critically appraised the reports of JOHESU negotiation and conciliation meetings with the Federal Government since the declaration of the trade dispute through the 15-day strike notice issued on September 2.

Noting the appeal from President Muhammadu Buhari on the need to show understanding with his administration and his pledge to pay any debt owed health workers, the unions insisted that the Federal Ministry of Health should ensure speedy circularisation of all establishment and welfare matters as agreed during negotiation meetings.

The communique said. “The Federal Government should ensure that the new data for the computation of the adjusted Consolidated Health Salary Structure, CONHESS, for JOHESU members are completed and submitted to the “High-Level Body” (HLB) of the FG not later than Wednesday, 22nd September 2021 as agreed. NEC-in-Session urges the Federal Government to ensure that the “High-Level Body” (HLB) complete and submit the computation of the adjusted CONHESS for inclusion in the 2022 budget within the 30th September 2021 submission window.  NEC-in-Session urges the Federal Government to reciprocate the patriotic humanitarian gesture of JOHESU in the interest of the larger Nigerian masses to expeditiously resolve all the demands within the fifteen days window”.

A statement issued by the Office of the Speaker said the doctors, at the resumption of the meeting with Gbajabiamila, which began last week, said they would suspend the planned resumption of the strike as soon as they got paid for their salary arrears, ranging from one to five months.

The statement issued by the Special Adviser to the Speaker on Media and Publicity, Lanre Lasisi, said the doctors took the position after the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, said funds were available for the payment while assuring that her ministry would pay immediately a verified list of the beneficiaries was received.

The statement reads “The resident doctors had on April 1, 2021, embarked on an indefinite strike, making demands that included non-payment of house officers, abolishment of bench fees, non-payment of national minimum wage, salary shortfall for 2014, 2015 and 2016, residency training allowance, and payment of resident doctors on GIFMIS platform. All the issues raised by the doctors were resolved, except that of salary shortfall for 2014, 2015 and 2016. The issue involves all health workers with a cost implication of about N23bn, which the Minister of State for Health, Sen. Olorunnimbe Mamora, described as “huge and complicated.”

Also, there were claims that a case on the matter was before a court, which the Speaker asked the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, to produce the relevant court papers to back the claim as the resident doctors said their checks revealed there was no pending court case anywhere on the matter.

It was then agreed jointly by the doctors, the House led by the Speaker and officials of the ministry of health that the matter should be set aside until court papers were provided.

Others present at the meeting, which lasted up to late Tuesday evening, were the Deputy Minority Leader, Toby Okechukwu; Minority Whip, Gideon Gwani; Chairman, House Committee on Healthcare Services, Tanko Sununu, among others.

On the part of the Executive arm were Dr Ehanire; Head of Service of the Federation, Mrs Folasade Yemi-Esan; Chairman of the Committee of CMDs, Dr Jafaru Momoh; the NARD President, Dr Okhuaihesuyi Uyilawa, among others.

The NARD has also threatened to impose a fine of N5m on any of its branches that fail to join the strike.

It also said branches found wanting would not be able to hold any national position for the next two years.

The President of NARD, Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi disclosed the directive to doctors at the isolation centres, the threat to impose an N5m fine on errant branches was contained in an internal memo sent out to members by the National Executive Council of the association.

On April 1, there were reports that members of the association at the COVID-19 isolations did not join the strike on compassionate grounds.

But the internal memo of the association threatened to impose an N5m fine on any branch that shunned the strike.

It read in part, “NARD affirms her commitment to the welfare of all members. All members of NARD will be levied the sum of N2, 500 as a strike levy for the smooth prosecution of the industrial action. Penalty for any centre that sabotages the industrial action will be payment of a fine of N5m and suspension from holding any NARD national officers committee positions for two years.”

Meanwhile, it was learnt that the strike, which entered its fifth day on Monday, might be taking its toll on the COVID-19 response. Okhuaihesuyi said doctors at the isolation centres, who are their members, were asked to join the strike because of the importance of this particular industrial action.

He said “I know some people may think we are selfish but this strike is about improving the health sector and improving service delivery,”

The NARD President, however, said consultant doctors should be able to handle emergencies at the isolation centres for now.

NARD comprises over 40 per cent of the total number of doctors in Nigeria. There are some 42,000 doctors in Nigeria, out of which 16,000 are resident doctors – medical school graduates training as specialists.

He said the purpose of the fresh talk would be for the striking resident doctors to explain to the government team the aspects of the memorandum of action they signed on Thursday which they did not agree with.

Ngige insisted that it was not yet time to invoke the no-work-no-pay rule.

The minister said, “We have not reached there (no-work-no-pay option). I said so earlier. We are going to have a formal meeting with them so that they will let us know the areas of the memorandum of action they signed that they do not agree with. The meeting will hold next week. Immediately work resumes, we will contact them and invite them to the meeting. The house officers affected are the ones recruited above the quota and those illegally recruited from January outside the central portal. So, we are paying everybody now and the formalisation of the portal. When we resume, we will know where we are but we need to stop the strike. You don’t visit people during festivity with strike and punish people who are sick. We are all working round the clock to end the strike,”

The doctors have scheduled a nationwide strike to begin tomorrow, April 1.

The doctors listed four demands that must be met by the Federal Government to shelve their planned action.

NARD President Dr. Uyilawa Okhuaihesuyi confirmed slated meetings with Labour and Employment Minister Dr. Chris Ngige and the Senate Committee on Health.

The conditions listed by the doctors are: full payment of salaries of all House Officers and Residents on the GIFMIS platform; upward review of hazard allowance from N5, 000 to 50 per cent of consolidated basic salaries of all health workers and the immediate payment of 2019, balance of 2020 and 2021 Medical Residency Training Funds (MRTF).

The doctors also demanded the issuance of vouchers to the families and loved ones of doctors who lost their lives in service, especially those on the frontline of the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic and other infectious diseases, according to The Nation.

Okhuaihesuyi said the listed conditions “are considered prime among other demands.”

Confirming the moves by stakeholders to avert the strike, he said: “I was called by the Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, and we will have a meeting with him tomorrow (today) by 3pm. I was in a meeting with the House of Representatives Committee on Healthcare Chairman Tanko Sununu on Monday. We will also have a meeting with the Senate Committee on Health Wednesday by 11am. We look forward to seeing them and we are hopeful that we can get some of our demands.”

The Labour and Employment minister also confirmed the meeting with NARD’s leadership at his ministry’s Conference Room.

Ngige said his team would hold a separate meeting with the Federal Ministry of Health and the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria before the meeting with the NARD

The union says the strike is coming on the heels of the inability of the Federal Government to meet its yearnings in June this year.

The demands by the doctors include a pay rise, better welfare, and adequate facilities, union leaders said.

The industrial action by the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), which represents some 40 percent of doctors, is the latest in a string of stoppages by medics to hit Africa’s most populous nation as it struggles to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

“We have kicked off the strike today,” NARD president Aliyu Sokomba told AFP, adding that medics treating virus cases would join the action this time around.

“There will be no exemptions,” he said.

Sokomba said long-standing issues such as provision of life insurance, a pay rise, payment of salary arrears as well as provision of adequate facilities for doctors were the reasons for the strike.

“We have arrears of 2014, 2015, 2016, salary shortfalls that were supposed to have been paid over six years ago, still pending,” he said.

“These are the issues we have and they appear not to have been addressed up till this day,” he said.

“It is an indefinite strike,” Sokomba said, adding that it would be called off only when the union’s demands were met.

The National Association of Resident Doctors began a nationwide strike on Monday, June 15. The striking doctors are among other things demanding the payment of their COVID-19 inducement allowances.

A negotiation meeting convened by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige with the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, and the leadership of the Resident doctors, ended in a deadlock on Tuesday night June 16 after many hours of deliberation.

The doctors refused to return to the meeting after a recess was taken. The National President, Dr Aliyu Sokomba, told newsmen that the doctors would only suspend the ongoing action within 24 hours if the government brings something tangible to the table.

Reacting to the striking doctors’ position, a visibly angry Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, said he was shocked by the position of the doctors. According to him, Nigeria is the first country where doctors will be embarking on a strike action during a pandemic.

He said “One day you will be sitting where we are sitting; you will be going through the same thing we are going through. It is a circle of life. In other countries, we have seen retired doctors and workers come out of retirement.  Nigeria is the first country in the world where health workers went on strike during a pandemic ‘Health is very important and a critical area at that, and under this circumstance, the health workforce is essential persons. We have pleaded with them over their demands so that the issues can be settled amicably. A number of them (their demands) do have merits, but the government has also tried to meet their demands. Sometimes, under pressure the way the system is; we have an obligation as a ministry to be ready to protect the lives of Nigerians, we are not going to allow our hospitals to empty. The government has an obligation to support the needs to safeguard the health of the citizens. The resident doctors have told us that they are not going to return to work anytime soon until certain conditions are met and we are not sure that they would not continue expanding the goal post every time we try to reach a solution. Therefore, certain steps need to be taken to protect the citizens, particularly those who are in hospitals. The Ministry of Health will issue a directive to all medical directors and Chief Medical Directors of all federal hospitals across the country to open up a register by 7 a.m and record all those who come to work and all those who do not come to work. Further action would follow that and those who come to work, it will be understood they are still in service and when the register closes at 12 noon we will be able to know who comes to work or not”

In a statement released, NARD President, Dr Aliyu Sokomba, accused the government of being insensitive to the demands of doctors. He said doctors in Isolation wards and treatment centres for COVID-19 will not be exempted from the strike action once it begins.

The demands of the resident doctors include

– Stoppage of Illegal deductions of Salaries by some state government

– Refund of illegally deducted salaries

-Non-payment of salaries of some members

-Non-payment of COVID19 inducement allowances

-Inadequate supply of Personal Protective Equipment

-Harassment and Assault of Doctors in the line of duty.

– Failure of government to provide life insurance for doctors and other health workers in the frontline.