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Nigeria Health Workers, Officials at Odds Over Unpaid COVID-19 Allowances

Timothy Obiezu

   ABUJA, NIGERIA - Nigerian doctors began a nationwide strike Monday over
   unpaid COVID-19 hazard allowances and inadequate protective equipment
   during the pandemic. Other health workers' groups and associations are
   threatening to join the strike. Since the country's first case, more
   than 1,000 Nigerian healthcare workers have become infected with
   COVID-19.

   Disinfecting his bags in his hotel room, frontline nurse, Emasalome
   Julius has not seen his wife and months old baby since May when he left
   home to join a team of health workers responding to the coronavirus at
   an isolation center in Abuja.

   He says he did not let his family know about the nature of the job
   because of the fear and stigma attached to the virus.

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