**7. Recognition of medical laboratory professionals during COVID-19**

The world biomedical day of 2020 awareness was solely dedicated to medical laboratory professionals across the globe because of their unique role in COVID-19.

In Nigeria and other countries, the emphasis on Testing is more of the recognition of the medical laboratories and professionals who toil to discover, test, monitor and research further towards COVID-19 elimination. Usually, medical laboratory professionals are not noticed for their great contribution to healthcare. They are rarely seen by people for their heroic contribution to patients' healthcare but cannot be underestimated as they perform series of tests that are crucial to ensuring accurate diagnosis and treatments that can help save patients' lives.

Medical laboratory professionals play a critical role in the diagnostics and testing of COVID-19 which they perform every day. A collaborative committee of 17 medical organizations including American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS), Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN) and American Society of Microbiology (ASM) in the year 2020 helped to coordinate the celebration of annual Biomedical science day in April, 2020 to increase public understanding of and appreciation for clinical laboratory personnel as COVID-19 rages worldwide [21]. Such recognitions usually come from government, organizations or various individuals all over the world.

Laboratory professionals use specialized instruments and techniques to analyze patient samples, such as blood, urine, body fluids, tissues and stool. They may be in a laboratory located in the hospital where the patient may be hundreds of miles away in a reference laboratory, however, no matter their distance to the patient, they produce results that directly affect the patient care. In addition to their day to day activities, laboratory professionals tackle threats to our national security and health such as disease outbreaks. They have played critical roles in fight against COVID-19. These effort have been appreciated by many governments across the globe [22, 23].

"We really need to hail the pathologist, medical technologists, and other laboratory professionals who are becoming unsung heroes of the COVID-19 pandemic" [21].

Now more than ever, is the chance for people all round the world to thank our unseen medical laboratory heroes and heroines. Each year medical laboratory professional's week celebrates the people who provides critical diagnostic information to help save lives and shows appreciation for the vital work they performed. Across the world, everyday people are applauding the brave health care workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.

### **8. Effort towards protection of medical laboratory and other health workers during COVID-19**

Protecting Health Care Workers (HCWs) during routine care of suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients is of paramount importance during the pandemic. The protection ranges from adequate provision of personal protective equipment to provision of temporary accommodation to carter for during testing and treatment of COVID-19 patients outside homes, Life insurance packages, Special Hazard Allowances and other allowances and Commencement of Vaccination among

laboratory professionals/healthcare workers. In Nigeria, life insurance to medical laboratory scientists during the COVID-19 was given by the government through the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) as seen in **Figure 4** as a clarification that the profession is among the front line healthcare workers targeted in the programme.

Countries may differ in their approach to laboratory and healthcare workers protection and care during the COVID-19 as documented by several authors [24–30] and analyzed in **Table 2**. Such support may involve mental health support provided

#### **Figure 4.** *Medical laboratory scientists clarified as frontline health workers covered for life insurance during COVID-19.*


**Table 2.**

*Employee support (assistance) programmes by some countries for COVID-19.*

*Fighting the COVID-19 Pandemic*

**310**

#### *Fighting COVID-19: The Medical Laboratory Involvement DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99459*

by psychiatrists and psychologists to medical laboratory staff and other healthcare workers working on the frontline which may be in form of counseling or in-house psychologists outreach.

Employee support programme (ESP) or employee assistant programme (EAP) cannot be exhausted and depends on the government, private institutions or the healthcare workers involved. The list may include: mental health, salary, childcare, COVID-19 allowance, insurance, food, transport, accommodation, continuous professional development (CPD) units, online training, spiritual support in form of prayers, social lives using music and dancing and others as may be necessary.

Financial support, payment of salaries and job retention for Medical Scientists and other healthcare workers is a sine qua non, so that healthcare workers who were required to stay at home on preventive quarantine or levels of exposure are protected to receive their basic pay and class/grade allowances. Special allowances for COVID-19 are paid to frontline workers in Nigeria and other countries.
