The National Association of Resident Doctors, on Thursday, called off their strike.
This comes after a truce was reached with the Federal Government on Wednesday with a view to calling off the strike within 24 hours.
The doctors had embarked on a second strike of the year over pay and working conditions amid the spread of the new coronavirus.
The strike began on Monday, and included 16,000 resident doctors out of a total of 42,000 doctors in the country, President of the National Association of Resident Doctors, Dr. Aliyu Sokomba, told Reuters.
“It is an indefinite strike until issues are resolved,” he said. “All resident doctors at the COVID-19 centres have joined the strike.”
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, had over of 55,000 confirmed coronavirus infections and more than 1,000 deaths.
Resident doctors are medical school graduates training as specialists.
They are pivotal to frontline healthcare in Nigeria as they dominate the emergency wards in its hospitals.
The group last went on strike in June, demanding better benefits and more protective equipment for battling the coronavirus. They are still demanding, among other things, life insurance and hazard allowance.
In a statement, Minister of Labour Chris Ngige called on the doctors to suspend the strike.
“All parties are enjoined not to employ arm-twisting methods to intimidate or foist a state of helplessness on the other party,” he said.
