NLC commends nurses, bemoans infection of 200,000 members with COVID-19

Nasarawa NMAN decry non-provision of PPEs to health workers

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has commended nurses for their contributions to a healthy world in spite of several medical challenges they have experienced over the years.

Speaking on this year’s International Nurses Day (IND), NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, described the theme, “Nursing the World to Health–Focusing on the True Value of Nurses to People of the World,” as apt.

He said the theme resonated with current global health emergency occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the role of nurses and other frontline health workers in combating the scourge. Wabba hinted that as at last week, about 200,000 health workers have been infected with coronavirus, of which 260 nurses have died from the pandemic.

He added that in Nigeria, the brutal backlash of coronavirus on health workers was worrisome, saying that about 300 health workers have been exposed and infected, while some have died fighting the pandemic.

Wabba said adoption of “Nurses a Voice to Lead: Nursing the World to Health,” as year 2020 theme of the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) for this year’s Nurses Day also depicted their role as the infantry soldiers of the health profession.

“Certainly, posterity will never forget the contributions of our nurses and other healthcare workers globally in salvaging mankind from extinction in the course of one of the worst pandemics that have ever ravaged humanity,” he added.

Meanwhile, as the world marks ‘World’s Nurses Day’, nurses in Nasarawa have decried the poor provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) and other protective materials to nurses who are at the frontline of the coronavirus fight in the state.

State Chairman of Nurses and Midwifery Association of Nigeria (NMAN), Shaholowu Attah, told The Guardian in Lafia that nurses in the state were being poorly equipped and mobilised in the fight against COVID-19.

He lamented the ongoing strike in the state by local government workers following cut in their salaries, adding, “The ongoing strike by local government workers, which also includes health workers is not good, considering the role health workers play in the fight against coronavirus.”