COVID-19 shouldn’t shift attention from other ailments

COVID-19 is no doubt a pandemic that has continued to sap the energies of many nations in combating it.

However, there is the tendency to put all attention on COVID-19 leaving other diseases to kill citizens silently.

There are reports that some hospitals are now turning back patients with ailments such as malaria, diabetes and BP in the wake of the pandemic.

Some of the health workers are even afraid of receiving patients for fear of unknowingly receiving a COVID-19 patient.

I therefore appeal to both the federal and state ministries of health to look into the situation and ensure that other categories of patients have unhindered access to medicare across the country.

We must not allow our focus on the fight against COVID-19 to make us shift attention from other patients seeking medicare in the hospital.

The fact is that the number of citizens that would have died of other ailments across the country since the outbreak of COVID-19 has far outweighed that of the coronavirus.

We must therefore prioritize the well-being of citizens suffering from other ailments at this trying time.

Joshua Godwin writes in from Ado, Karu LGA of Nasarawa State