New Telegraph

18 UITH nurses, seven porters contract coronavirus

At least 18 nurses have tested positive for COVID- 19 at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH). The Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) of the hospital, which disclosed this, said seven supporting staff (porters) also tested positive for the novel virus. The union lamented that UITH was yet to have an isolation centre.

It, however, commended the management for converting one of the wards to an isolation centre. The UITH JOHESU Chairman, Olutunde Oluwawumi, told journalists in Ilorin, at the sideline of a meeting with members, that many of the nurses working at the centre were not properly kitted. He said: “Presently, we have about 18 nurses who have tested positive for the virus and seven sub-staff. “We want better protection, adequate personal protective equipment (PPEs). What we are due for should be given to us. We are lacking in a number of things, including exposing our lives to danger.

It is now that they are trying to rectify the issue of PPE. PPEs have not been given. They are just promising us. “We have a ward converted to an isolation centre at the UITH. We have not got our own isolation centre. Government ought to have built one for us. Based on the increase in the number of patients testing positive for COVID- 19, we had to take them in here and nurse them.

“Our agitation is that the ward that has been converted to COVID-19 should be properly adjusted to suit the purpose in order not to infect people who are working there. “People, who are working at the centre, are not being properly taken care of. Many of them did not sign to work at the isolation centre. We have 22 nurses working at the centre, six cleaners and six porters.”

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