The Federal Government has strongly condemned the taking of health workers hostage by patients in some Covid-19 isolation centers across the country, and urged State Governments to quickly address the situation.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, bared government’s mind on Monday at a media briefing organized by the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Covid-19.
He described as reprehensible the several reports of health workers being threatened and subjected to inhumane treatment by patients receiving treatment in the isolation centres.
“It is inhuman and unacceptable that patients engage in acts of locking them up and making demands that these frontline officers, most of the time do not have the capacity to address.
“The PTF on COVID-19 views such behavior as reprehensible and should be deprecated.
“We call on all state governments to take this up appropriately,” Mustapha stated.
He also declared that Covid-19 had completely changed the way and manner things are done globally, and warned Nigerians that there was enormous cost for anyone who wants to continue to live in the old ways.
Mustapha said that “the eased restrictions must therefore not become an excuse for us to lead the lives we were used to, pre-Covid-19 days.
“I wish to re-iterate that the world today has completely changed from what we used to know and if we want to continue living the old ways, the cost would be enormous.”
He noted that the PTF was working on changing its strategy. This, according to him, will involve what he described as “drilling down from all tiers of government to community level.”
He called on traditional, community and religious leaders to “brace up for deeper involvement as we develop the protocols to strengthen community ownership in the National Response.”
