COVID-19: Chinese Doctors Arrive Nigeria

Despite a strong protest from Nigeria Medical Association, Nigeria government welcomes Chinese medical team to help Nigeria contain rampaging Coronavirus.

Chinese Doctors Arrive Nigeria photo — **Chinese Doctors Arrive Nigeria**

The 15-man Chinese medical team finally arrived Nigeria Wednesday to assist Nigeria contain the escalating coronavirus. Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation and chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, confirmed this during a press briefing Wednesday evening. The Chinese team with medical supplies were already landing at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja, at the time the briefing was taking place.

The Federal Government had said on Monday that Chinese doctors may be invited to help Nigeria fight the infection. The government had obviously taken stock of the treatment protocol, escalating infection numbers and low discharge numbers and decided to send SOS to China.

The Nigeria Medical Association immediately protested the arrangement, which it saw as a vote of no confidence on Nigeria’s healthcare system and personnel, and threatened to withdraw its members from hospitals should government go ahead with the plan. Unknown to NMA, the deal was already sealed.

The government had engaged Air Peace to freight the Chinese team and medical supplies to Nigeria. The Air Peace Boeing 777-200ER (P4 5-NBVE) landed in Beijing, China, 14:18 pm, on Tuesday, after a 14-hours non-stop flight. The return flight touched down at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport at 4.25 pm Wednesday, after a 15-hours nonstop flight. Air Peace had on April 5, airlifted medical supplies from Turkey to Nigeria.

China is facing a global moral burden for being the source of the virus and is being investigated by U.S Central Intelligence Agency on the suspicion that COVID-19 is a biological warfare project of the most populated country in the world and the second-largest economy, after the United States. The virus is also seen as a business project of China, though other countries including United States and France still buy facilities from China to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. There are also suspicions that both the personnel and medical supplies from China may be infected with the virus to further increase the business potential in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country.

Mustapha had on Monday explained that the project is a public relation scheme by a Chinese company with substantial contracts in Nigeria.

“The support coming from China is a corporate social responsibility initiated by CCECC, a company with a total volume of infrastructural contracts in Nigeria worth over N10 billion.”

He also feels that inviting China to help Nigeria is not an embarrassment. “I wish to clarify that all the countries of the world are seeking assistance and are receiving help in the fight against COVID-19 – even the United States is looking for help elsewhere.”

The PR package include: 1,300,000 medical masks, over 150,000 pieces of Personal Protective Equipment and 50 medical ventilators.

“The professionals that have been invited by CCECC through their parent company in China to come are public health specialists and medical engineers that will support Nigeria’s capacity in managing the pandemic on an advisory basis … while drawing from the experience of the Chinese,” Mustapha explained.

“In no way shall there be case management and interface with patients. They would train our manpower, advise on procedures and methods, install and test the equipment donated before handing them over for our technicians to begin to use them. I, therefore, use this medium to appeal to our medical professionals to see the positive aspect of these gestures as an extension of development in the field of medicine.”

The Nigeria Medical Association reacted swiftly against it in a statement, describing it as an “embarrassment.”

“It is a thing of embarrassment to the membership of the Association and other health workers who are giving their best in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic under deplorable working conditions, and a fragile health system to be subjected to the ignominy of not being carried along in arriving at such a decision.

“The lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), grossly inadequate test kits, and test centres across the country, and the absolute lack of any form of insurance for the workforce are primordial issues begging for attention at this time.

“We are therefore profoundly dismayed to learn that the Federal Government is instead inviting the Chinese who from available accounts are not out of the woods themselves. The spike in cases and the death toll from COVID-19 in Italy coincided with the arrival of the Chinese in the guise of offering assistance. Even the United Nations has only just recently commended the efforts of Nigeria so far.”

Many of the so called Chinese experts that come to Nigeria have been found to be mere technicians. The NMA reminded government that there are laws in Nigeria regulating the practice of medicine. In other words, the Chinese team should be investigated to confirm if they are qualified to practice medicine in Nigeria. The Medical and Dental Council Act, requires that the council should “be consulted to grant necessary approvals to foreigners to interact with Nigerian patients”.

The Association regretted that government has not shown appreciation for the work health workers are doing. “NMA expects the Government to show appreciation by channeling the available resources and donations to improving testing facilities to detect more cases and ramp up capacity to train more workers.”

Osagie Ehanire, professor of medicine and minister of health, said the Chinese team will be tested to be COVID-19 free before they operate in Nigeria.

“The Chinese experts or anybody coming into the country at all will have to be subjected to the rules and regulations we have set down. This is for the interest of protecting our people. Even if we assume they have done a test in their country, we still have to do a confirmative test here.”

The arrival of the Chinese team witnessed 22 new cases in Nigeria, bringing the Nigeria’s total number to 276.

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