- Private hospitals have been warned by the federal government not to treat any case of the deadly coronavirus
- The minister of health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire explained that private hospitals do not have the required facilities to treat such a disease
- Ehanire advised that any suspected case of coronavirus should be reported by the private hospital to designated centers
As Nigeria continues to experience an increase of coronavirus cases brought into the country, the federal government has warned private hospitals not to treat cases of the deadly coronavirus, because the virus is extremely contagious and dangerous to other patients and medical staff.
Dr. Osagie Ehanire, the minister of health, who disclosed this on Friday, March 20, while giving an update on the disease urged hospitals that are privately owned to refer any suspected case of coronavirus to the appropriate centers for diagnosis and treatment, Nigerian Tribune reports.
The minister further explained that private hospitals do not have the necessary facilities and laboratory to handle COVID-19 being a highly contagious disease. He added that if such hospitals don’t have the protocol for treatment, other patients and staff could easily be infected.
He said: “Most of the private centers don’t have the facilities to treat a highly infectious disease like that and they will definitely not have a laboratory for it. But in that case, we urge private hospitals if they have suspected cases, to refer them for diagnosis.
Dr. Osagie Ehanire, the minister of health
Source: UGC
“This is a highly and contagious disease which if you don’t have the protocol for treatment, you can infect your staff in the hospital, you can infect other patients and that will not be good. So, it is better to go to designated centres instead of running the risk of having local transmission within your own private facility.
“So, we don’t advise. Yes if you are a private practitioner and you get a patient who is suspicious or suspected of infection, send for testing and send to a designated treatment center.”
Ehanire also insisted that Nigeria would not stop its strategy of “self-isolation,” instead of compulsorily isolating travellers from high-risk and other infected countries.
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Legit.ng previously reported that as one of its major steps to keep Nigerians abreast with information on coronavirus, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has unveiled a microsite, covid19.ncdc.gov.ng, for this purpose.
On its Twitter page, the NCDC said that the new site has been approved by the minister of health, Osagie Ehanire. The agency said that without the need for regular press briefing, news related to the virus in Nigeria will be posted on the site.
In a related development, NCDC has reported that there is a new case of coronavirus in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja. The NCDC via Twitter revealed that the case was confirmed on Sunday, March 22, bringing the number of cases to 27.
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