India: Experts warn of looming danger, US directs citizens to leave

Medical experts have warned that Nigerians will face serious problems if the Federal Government fails to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 strain in India to Nigeria.

The experts, including  the president of the Academy of Medicine Specialities of Nigeria, Prof. Oladapo Ashiru, and  a medical virologist at Adeleke University, Ede, Osun State, Dr Oladipo Kolawole, gave the warning on Thursday as the Nigerian Medical Association  advised  Nigerians to fear the new  COVID-19 strain  in India and take necessary precautions to prevent its spread to the country.

The NMA National President, Professor Innocent Uja, who gave the warning in an interview with Punch, noted that there were many Indians in Nigeria.

According to him, rather than stopping Indians from coming into the country, Nigerians should comply with  the Nigeria Centre for  Disease  Control’s protocols of wearing face masks and  washing hands regularly.

India is currently witnessing what has been described as a devastating second wave of COVID-19 with confirmed cases and deaths increasing in the past weeks.

One of the new variants circulating in India is referred to as the “double mutant” though it is officially called B.1.617.

Many people infected with coronavirus are being turned back from hospitals that have run out of beds and oxygen, as number of confirmed cases in the Asian country rose to  18,754,925 on Thursday.

Crematoriums are also operating non-stop as the country recorded a total of 21,385 deaths in a week.

As India battled the virus, the United State, according to the BBC, told its citizens to leave the Asian nation  as soon as possible. It warned its citizens that  in India “access to all types of medical care is becoming severely limited.”

-Punch