Covid-19 Related Disruption of Out-Patient Services: An Opportunity for Integrating Telemedicine into Clinical Practice in Public Hospitals in Nigeria

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 disease2019 (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.