COVID-19 related disruption of out-patient services: an opportunity for integrating telemedicine into clinical practice in public hospitals in Nigeria.
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Date
2020
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The Biomedical Communications Consult
Abstract
In December 2019, the first cases of a viral pneumonia were
reported in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. Deep thoroughput
sequencing of airway secretions of the patients revealed a
novel coronavirus named severe acute respiratory syndrome
SARS-CoV-2. On February 11, 2020 the World Health
Organization (WHO) named the disease Coronavirus disease-
2019 (COVID-19) and declared it a global pandemic on
March 11, 2020. As the COVID-19 cases escalated, it became
a source of tremendous disruption of the lives and means of
livelihood of huge populations of people worldwide. The
pandemic continues to spread and the number of cases of
COVID-19 worldwide numbered a cumulative 22,034,395
with 776,801 deaths as at August 17, 2020. (Worldometer
COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020) Nigeria had recorded 49, 485
cases and 977 deaths by the said date while South Africa leads
the continent’s tally of the disease with 589,886 cases and
11,982 deaths – the fifth highest in the world. (Worldometer
COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020). The implementation of
measures instituted to limit the spread of the disease by most
national governments included wearing of face masks in
public and restriction of human movement and physical
interaction.
Description
Keywords
COVID-19 disease, Telemedicine, lockdown
Citation
African Journal of Biomedical Sciences 23(3);301-303.