25 UITH staff test positive for COVID-19, says JOHESU

Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU), University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) on Tuesday said that no fewer than 18 nurses and seven supporting staff have tested positive for COVID-19 pandemic at the hospital.

The union said UITH is yet to have COVID-19 isolation centre, adding that management had converted one of the wards at the hospital to a centre.

UITH JOHESU Chairman Olutunde Oluwawumi told reporters in Ilorin, the state capital at the sideline of a meeting with members.

Corroborated by some of the nurses working at the centre, Comrade Oluwawumi said that many of the nurses working at the centre are not properly kitted.

He said: “Presently, we have about 18 nurses that had tested positive to the pandemic and seven sub-staff. We want better protection, adequate personal protective equipment (PPEs). What we are due for should be given to us. We are lacking in a number of things. They are exposing our lives to danger. It is now that they are trying to rectify the issue of PPE. PPEs have not been given. They are just promising us.

“We have a ward converted to isolation centre at the UITH. We have not got our own isolation centre. Government ought to have built one for us. Based on the increase in the number of patients testing positive to the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to take them in here and nurse them.

Our agitation is that the ward that has been converted to COVID-19 should be properly adjusted to suit the purpose in order not to infect people who are working there.

“People who are working at the centre are not been properly taken care of. Many of them did not sign to work at the isolation centre. They are abandoned in protecting them. We have 22 nurses working at the centre, six cleaners and six portals.”