Resident doctors strike worries Benue health commissioner

From Uche Nnorom, Makurdi

Benue State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Sunday Ongbabo has lamented over the ongoing national strike by Resident Doctors, noting that this is the time their services are most needed.
Dr. Ongbabo made the lamentation yesterday while speaking with newsmen in his office, said it is quite unfortunate that the strike is happening at time when hands need to be on deck to fight Covid 19 pandemic.
He added that, the country cannot afford to lose focus, hoping that the strike will not go beyond next week.
According to him, the strike has not incapacitated the state’s actions on Covid 19 yet, boasting that they have the potential to expand responses.
“When you talk about capacity, it is in terms of infrastructure, personnel, equipment and drugs. I have told you that our response are in progressive stages and we are capable of handling whatever stage that the Covid-19 will get to especially when you have a Chief executive that is part of it”, he said.
Commenting on the current Covid-19 status of the state, the health Commissioner said so far, they have recorded 35 positive results from the beginning from now.
“35 persons have tested positive in Benue and out of these, 11 of them have been treated and have become negative. That is a very high percentage of success in Benue. We have not lost anyone in Benue. We are left with 23 active status who are on treatment and they are very stable and fine and we expect that in the next few days they will be discharged.
“80% of the cases of persons that have tested positive to the virus are from Makurdi metropolis.
“People should be careful. Yes we have stopped calling names but we want people to assume that the next person has it and you need to take care of yourself.
“We are working hard to get a testing centre. We are also, waiting to get all the Personal Protective Equipment, PPE and the relief materials before distributing them. We do want to distribute them in piecemeal.”