Osagie Ehanire, minister of health, has called on residents
doctors to put an end to the ongoing strike action.
On August 1, the National Association of Resident Doctors
(NARD) embarked on strike over “irregular payment of salaries”, among other issues.
Efforts of stakeholders, including the house of
representatives, to mediate between the federal government and the resident
doctors did not yield results.
At the briefing of the presidential committee on COVID-19 on
Monday, Ehanire said doctors should return to work as all debts would be
cleared.
“Last week his
excellency, the president received the leadership of the Nigerian Medical
Association in audience and in his remarks called on doctors on strike to
return to duty and for those contemplating it to opt for peaceful resolution,
so as not to put the lives of citizens at risk,” he said.
“He reminded us that his administration has a sound track
record of paying debts, even such debts as inherited from, or ignored by
preceeding administration. Resident doctors are therefore assured from the
highest authority in the land that all debts will be settled, when they are
verified and validated.
“With this, I call on striking doctors to put an end to
their industrial action immediately and return to work. Nigeria has been lucky
with the relatively low impact of COVID-19 so far, and we need to keep our
preparedness optimal. We cannot afford to stretch our luck too far.”
The minister said the third wave of COVID-19 appears to be
levelling out, seeing as there’s been no catastrophic increases in infections
and fatalities.
He, however, added that it is not wise to assume that the
threat is gone.
“Evidence so far, however, is that the Delta strain is
already the dominant in Nigeria. We must keep our protective measures in place
and increase testing to determine our situation,” he said.
Ehanire said states have received doses of AstraZeneca,
Moderna and J&J vaccines for the ongoing second phase of the vaccination
exercise.
He said the federal government has done due diligence to
ensure vaccine quality and safety.
He added that available data shows that there have been no
serious adverse effects after vaccination.
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