Addressing the press on Monday, June 15, 2020, in Abuja, NARD President, Dr Aliyu Sokomba said the strike will go on without healthcare professionals saving lives in various coronavirus (COVID-19) isolation and treatment centres across the country.

Sokomba however added that exemption of members attending to COVID-19 patients will only be for two weeks before they are coerced to join the industrial action.

Resident doctors are those who have graduated from medical school and are training as specialist consultants. They dominate the emergency wards in Nigerian hospitals.

The union is embarking on the strike because series of meetings with the federal government bordering on non-payment of special allowances to resident doctors, have yielded little.

NARD is also unhappy with the shabby and deplorable states of the nation's hospitals.

They are also protesting insufficient protective equipment for members of the union treating COVID-19 patients.

According to Dr Sokomba, doctors on the frontline of the nation's COVID-19 battle have been exposed to the coronavirus, with some of them dying from the virus.

It is not the first time Nigerian doctors are threatening to embark on a strike since the nation's index COVID-19 case was diagnosed on February 27.

In May, doctors in Lagos, epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in Nigeria, threatened a strike action after police officers refused to recognize them as essential workers.

Last week, resident doctors in the north-central state of Kwara warned of an imminent strike action.

Nigeria has recorded 16, 805 COVID-19 infections as of June 14, 2020.