Nigeria’s underfunded public health facilities are mostly used by the poor
ABUJA, May 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Nigeria’s information minister has said the country is yet to receive ventilators promised by US President Donald Trump in April.
Lai Mohammed has denied Trump’s remarks made last week that he had sent 1,000 ventilators to the West African country.
Mohammed said that if the consignment had arrived, it would be announced publicly.
Trump made the promise during a telephone call with President Muhammadu Buhari on April 28.
He said the US was committed to helping Nigeria’s response to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Last week, during a tour of the Ford motor plant in Michigan, Trump said the US had just sent 1,000 ventilators to Nigeria.
Meanwhile, the head of the country’s Covid-19 task force said more Nigerians are dying because they are not receiving hospital treatment for other diseases than are killed by the coronavirus itself.
Boss Mustapha told a media briefing that it was sad and unacceptable that both private and government hospitals were rejecting patients because of fears of contracting Covid-19.
“Statistics have shown that there is a drastic drop in the percentage of attention being paid to other ailments not related to Covid-19,” he said.
“Truth be told, we are having more deaths from non-attendance to other diseases than even Covid-19,” he said.
Mustapha did not give the number of those who have died because of non-attendance at medical facilities.
But some hospitals have completely shut down, saying they lack personal protective equipment (PPE) for staff.
The main doctors’ association has told its members not to treat patients showing symptoms of Covid-19 without adequate PPE.
There have been reports of sick people who have been turned back at the gates of hospitals over fears that they had coronavirus.
Nigeria has so far recorded 8,915 coronavirus cases, including 259 deaths while 2,592 persons discharged. — NNN-AGENCIES
