The Federal Government says other diseases are killing Nigerians more
than COVID-19 owing to the refusal of hospitals, including federal
tertiary institutions, to treat patients of those ailments for fear of
coronavirus.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Chairman,
Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, raised the alarm in
Abuja yesterday at the briefing of the taskforce.

“This situation is made worse by the fact that federal tertiary
institutions have been mentioned among those rejecting patients for fear
of COVID. This is not acceptable. We’re saddened by this development.

“Truth be told, we’re having more deaths from non-attendance to other
diseases than even COVID 19. The reason for the greater emphasis on
COVID 19 is because it is a pandemic and if not curtailed has a capacity
of wiping out large segments of our population,” he said.

He said the Minister of Health had directed all medical directors to
continue to providing regular medical services to avert avoidable
deaths. He also urged all the Chief Medical Directors and private health
service providers to attend to other health challenges.

He said the guidelines for dealing with patients presenting
coronavirus-like symptoms are available and if applied by medical
service providers, there would be lesser risks of exposure to the virus.

The SGF described as misleading, media reports that the government had
shortlisted three remedies from traditional medicine practitioners.

He also said that within the next 70 hours, the PTF would conclude its
assessment on the impact of the measures put in place and further
recommendations would be submitted to the president for a decision.