Insurers offer PPEs to drive fight against COVID-19 pandemic

Insurance firms have donated Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) worth millions to the Lagos State and others in a move to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in the country.

The underwriters’ intervention is considered the largest single donation by a corporate organisation in the country to address the spread of coronavirus since numbers of cases are increasing on daily basis particularly in Lagos.

Precisely, SUNU Group, has demonstrated its commitment with the donation of splash resistant suits/overalls, masks, goggles among others to the medical officers of the Lagos State Teaching Hospital (LUTH)

The Managing Director, Sunu Assurance Plc, Samuel Ogbodo, told The Guardian that the firm has commended the deliberate efforts made by the Doctors and other healthcare workers in Nigeria and around the world to combat the outbreak and curtail its spread.

Ogbodo said, the company is happy to donate very important consumables, masks, googles and overalls that are very important in protecting health workers on the frontline.

Also, the Managing Director, Sunu Health, Dr Patrick Korie said the strategy of the Group is help curtail the spread of Covid-19 with the PPE equipment.

The Chief Medical Director of the teaching hospital, Dr Chris Bode, while receiving the equipment said they came at a time when the hospital was almost running out of the equipment.

He said: “We are really running short of these supplies of PPE equipment and SUNU Group has just donated them at a very good time. The equipment is exactly what we need for the front line workers. It’s very important because we have a block with four floors and 120 beds. We have about 100 patients meaning you need about 100 workers. They all have to wear these and they go in to check on the patients like four to five times a day.

The Deputy Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee, Clinical Services, LUTH, Dr Ayodeji Oluwole, who also spoke to The Guardian at the presentation of the items, described the group’s gesture as a timely donation and “we are appreciative of it because this is what we really need now. We are running short.

“We thought the pandemic was going to last for like four weeks but this is the second month. If you count February, this is the third month. So, it’s something that we need more from well-meaning donors like SUNU Group”, he noted.

Also, the Executive Director Marketing and Brand Operations, NICON Insurance, Debo Oladejo, who spoke with The Guardian at the weekend in a phone interview, said “in the face of the rising number of cases in the country, we cannot but commend the concerted efforts of the National Emergency Operations Centre led by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control as well as various state governments who have continued to coordinate response activities and strengthen preparedness capacity across the country. We remain irrevocably committed towards efforts to eradicate this pandemic as quickly as possible”

Responding to the development, Professor of Surgery and Provost of the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan and Consultant Urologist at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oluwabunmi Olapade-Olaopa stated: “The intervention by the insurance operators in the industry are very timely and addresses the core of what is needed at this time to keep the fight going and enable care for the sick and research on the disease. We are extremely grateful for the insurer for its impactful support and its commitment towards better healthcare in Nigeria”.