Alliance for Surviving COVID-19 and Beyond (ASCAB) and leading health workers’ unions have said that with close to 100,000 COVID-19 infections, Nigeria is in a state of war with the pandemic.
The groups made this declaration in a communiqué after a one- day national meeting themed: “The Citizens Response to the Second Wave of COVID-19 Pandemic and the State of the Health Sector in Nigeria,” organised by ASCAB which drew participants from leading health unions across the country, warning that the second wave of the pandemic may record higher tolls unless immediate and drastic efforts were taken.
The meeting held via Zoom on December 30, was, according to the statement signed by ASCAB Interim Chairman, Mr Femi Falana, attended by health-driven unions, including the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU), Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) and National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM).
Others are the Nigeria Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP), National Association of Community Health Practitioners (NACHP) and the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN) converged via Zoom on December 30 for a public meeting on the Citizens Response to the Second Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the State of the Health Sector in Nigeria.
This was just as they chided the Nigerian authorities for not including scientists in its various committees, and further warned that such approach would undermine efforts to develop an indigenous vaccine as a long term strategy of fighting the pandemic.
ASCAB and the leading health unions, while noting that COVID-19 is real and has inflicted horrors across the world, posited that those in the informal sector would suffer far more from any possible return to lockdowns especially with the new strains from South Africa and Britain which are far more infectious.

The pandemic has never ended, and COVID-19 still threatens the lives of all of us. The only thing we can do now is go out less.