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Nigerian Doctors Suspend Strike Amid Renewed Negotiations

Nigerian Doctors Suspend Strike After Talks With Government

Nigerian doctors suspended a nationwide strike to continue talks with the government about a lack of protective equipment to treat Covid-19 patients and benefits including allowances.

The medical officers decided to return to work after an intervention by government officials, the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors said in an emailed statement on Monday. The group will “continue negotiations with stakeholders and progress made shall be reviewed in four weeks,” it said.

Frontline workers, who include emergency response teams, investigators and sample collectors in infectious treatment centers across the country, are demanding payment of three months of outstanding allowances, Punch newspaper reported. Nigeria’s minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, earlier said the government paid 55,031 health workers at 35 coronavirus-designated hospitals 4.6 billion naira ($11.8 million) in hazard allowances.

At least 812 first responders have been infected with the virus, according to the latest available data from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control. About 300 resident doctors have been infected and 10 have died, Bilqis Muhammad, the association’s secretary-general, said by phone.

Africa’s most populous country has recorded 20,244 coronavirus infections and 518 deaths since its first case on Feb. 27.

Mohammed has called the strike “a setback for the nation’s effort” to fight Covid-19. He accused the group of betraying the nation and their professional oath by denying people medical care during a public health emergency.

“This is not right and it clearly negates the Hippocratic Oath to which the doctors subscribe,” Mohammed said in an emailed statement. “This is an ill-timed and ill-considered strike; there is no doubt that the strike has impacted negatively on public health, putting many lives at risk.”

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.