COVID-19: We don’t know whereabouts of Chinese doctors -PTF

The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, on Thursday, said that they are not aware of the whereabouts of the Chinese doctors and health professionals who were flown into the country some weeks ago to help Nigeria in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking at the daily briefing of the PTF in Abuja on Thursday, the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, wondered why there is so much interest in knowing the whereabouts of the Chinese health professionals and he told journalists not to ask him about their whereabouts again.

Controversies have trailed the insistence of the Federal Government to allow the importation of the Chinese health professionals, as many groups and associations, including the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) and the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), rejected and kicked against their importation.

But the Minister of Health, on Thursday, said that the ministry was not their host, and do not know their whereabouts, adding that the ministry cannot explain their whereabouts “because they are not really our guests.”

Dr Ehanire said: “The other one is about the Chinese doctors. I think not all of them are doctors, 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 happens to them or where they are.

“There seems to be a lot of interests in these doctors but they are staff of a company and I think they are on the company visa. So, I will be very happy if you don’t ask me about where they are because they are not really our guests in that sense.”