Chief Medical Director (CMD), University College Hospital (UCH), Prof Jesse Otegbayo says that the receipt of the 3.94 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine Nigeria received on Tuesday was historic and significant in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
Prof Otegbayo who stated this while addressing newsmen in Ibadan on the occasion of his second year in office said that vaccines which are a critical new tool in the battle against COVID-19 will help frontline health workers who have worked tirelessly to combat the pandemic over the past year to discharge their duties to the best of their abilities.
According to him, “this is a right step in the right direction as it will have a positive impact on our frontline workers and doctors. What the vaccine does is to make you immune. The frontline doctors are supposed to be protected because they are the ones taking care of the sick.
“All over the world, frontline workers are prioritised to protect them from being infected by the patients they are treating; so they become resistant and can continue to give adequate care and reduce community transmission of the disease. Then everyone will have herd immunity and eventually, it will be a disease like malaria; so it is going to have a tremendous impact in the fight against the virus.”
‘494 workers tested positive at UCH’
Prof Otegbayo said that the COVID-19 pandemic had contributed to the prevalence of infectious diseases in the hospital, making it the most prevalent ailment in the hospital, leading to heart disorders and cancers.
He said that of the 947 COVID-19 positive patients treated by the hospital since the inception of the outbreak, 494 are workers of the hospital and 453 non-staff members, adding that the second wave of the pandemic might be waning based on statistics gathered in the hospital.
Prof Otegbayo declared that: “As of 20th February 2021, out of 59 swabs, available results showed seven new positive covid cases, two are members of staff and five non-staff members. A positive testing rate of about 12 per cent compared to 25 per cent, which is less than 50 per cent of what was observed last week. It is the lowest positive testing rate so far in 2020 and tells us is that COVID-19 phase 2 is going down.”
He said the hospital’s topmost agenda for his third year in office would be the completion of the independent power project to ensure uninterrupted power supply in the hospital even as he said the hospital had just revamped all the ailing theatres, the labour ward and intensive care units in the hospital to create a conducive operating milieu.
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