BY Bolanle Olabimtan
Chikwe Ihekweazu, director-general of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), says some officials of the agency who contracted COVID-19 in the line of duty are working from isolation centres across the country.
Speaking during the presidential task force briefing on COVID-19 on Wednesday, Ihekweazu said he is in touch with those affected.
He narrated how he reached out to cheer them up but they ended up encouraging him to keep up the good work.
“Yesterday after work, I spoke to a number of people in my team that had sadly become infected themselves as part of the response in the line of duty,” he said.
“I called them to encourage them, but they ended up encouraging me and encouraging this PTF to keep pushing. That our work was so important for the future of our country and they wanted to keep at it.
“So even as they are isolated and some of them in hospitals, they are on their laptops working, contributing to the response. They said it is better to do that than to sit idly watching TV or thinking about their fate.”
Asked to disclose the number of infected NCDC officials, he said: “This is not a question that anyone would answer. I never give out that type of information. We ask you to continue supporting all health care workers across the country, whether they are NCDC staff, federal ministry of health staff, Lagos state government staff or even private physicians.
“Some of them have actually been private physicians that managed patients without initially knowing that they had the COVID-19. So we actually ask for support for all of them. Not just one category or the other.”
Ihekweazu has always laid emphasis on the need to respect the privacy of infected people, saying that anyone could be a victim.
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