COVID-19: AMLSN rejects invitation of Chinese Medical team to the Country

T he Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN) have joined her counterpart the Nigerian Medical Association to reject the planned invitation of Chinese Medical experts to the country to support with the fight against COVID-19.

According to the Association in a tweet, the move is a "planned importation of the Chinese strain of the COVID-19 Virus under the guise of 18 Chinese Doctors, Nurses and Public health personnel".

It is a No, No to the planned importation of the Chinese strain of the COVID-19 Virus under the guise of 18 Chinese Doctors, Nusres and Public health personnel. We call on all well meaning Nigerians to rsie up, reject and halt this move. It's the devil's apple full of WORMS.

— AMLSN (@AMLSNNational) April 5, 2020

The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire while speaking at a press briefing by the presidential task force on COVID-19 in Abuja on Friday had said a 18-man team of Chinese medical experts including doctors, nurses and other medical advisers shall be coming to the country to assist in the fight against the ravaging Coronvirus Disease (COVID-19)

In the meantime, the Director-General, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Dr. Garba Abari has come up to clarify misconceptions generated by the proposed visit of the Chinese team.

According to him, the Federal Government was not importing Chinese medical experts to directly take charge of the fight against COVID-19 pandemic in the country but that  the 18-man Chinese medical team were only coming to share experiences with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on how they handled the pandemic as well as give expert suggestions, considering that China has already fought the disease.

Moreso, that whatever information the Chinese medical team makes available to NCDC will be filtered and applied to address the peculiar challenges of the country on handling the COVID-19 scourge.