Consider everyone as suspected COVID-19 case, NMA tells members

The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Lagos State Chapter, has called on healthcare practitioners and providers to consider everyone as a suspected COVID-19 case, aside ensuring universal precautions always. 
 
The Chairman, Dr. Adetunji Adenekan, who made the call in a public health message to all healthcare workers in Lagos, amidst the second wave of the pandemic, said it is imperative for healthcare workers to be cautious, as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases among healthcare workers across the metropolis is rapidly rising.
 
He said events of the last few weeks have been quite unprecedented and very shocking within Lagos State medical community, following increased rate of infections and deaths of most cherished members of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Lagos Chapter.
 
Adenekan commiserated with families of NMA members that succumbed to the dreaded disease in the state, urging need for a very high index of suspicion among healthcare practitioners and providers during the second wave.
   
He appealed to Lagos NMA members and frontline healthcare workers to be more safety conscious and adhere very strictly to the COVID-19 guidelines of non-pharmaceutical interventions and other preventive protocols in the course of discharging their duties and when in public space. 
   
He charged healthcare workers to take responsibility for their health and wellbeing, adding that they should not keep to themselves, but rather seek urgent medical attention in the event of the experience of any COVID-19 related symptoms, such as fever, cough, fatigue, anosmia, dysgeusia, malaise and breathlessness, among others.