BEVERLY HILLS, May 15, (THEWILL) – Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, has said he was unaware of the location of 15 Chinese nationals, who recently came into the country to “help in the fight against COVID-19”.
THEWILL recalls that a Chinese medical team arrived the country on April 8, 2020 with medical supplies to provide advice to the Nigerian Government on the fight against Coronavirus.
Some Nigerians had kicked against the federal government’s decision to invite the medical experts, saying the country had enough doctors to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) also described the move as “a thing of embarrassment to the membership of the Association and other health workers who are giving their best in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic under deplorable working conditions.”
Ehanire, however, insisted then that the experts would be sharing their experience after making progress in the fight against the virus.
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“The Chinese medics will be providing technical support to Nigeria in its fight against COVID-19, and also sharing experiential strategies of how their country curtailed the spread of the virus,” he said at that time.
However, Ehanire, while responding to questions at the daily Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing on Thursday, said the medical personnel “are not guests of the federal government but CCECC, a construction company”.
He went on to reveal that not all of the visitors earlier announced as medics have something to do with the medical profession.
“I want to explain that first of all, I think not all of them are doctors and I heard that some of them are technicians but they are staff of CCECC.
”The ministry of health is not their host, so we cannot always explain what happened to them or where they are.
“There seems to be a lot of interest in these doctors but they are staff of a company. I would be very happy if you do not ask me where they are.
“They are not really our guests in that sense but we have been able to learn some things from them. We shared ideas of what they did in their country in managing COVID-19.”
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