Nigeria

COVID-19 task force raises alarm over refusal by coronavirus positive patients to stay in isolation

Friday, June 05, 2020 at 9:18 AM by Oluwatobi Bolashodun

- The federal government has raised an alarm over the refusal of people infected with COVID-19 to stay at the isolation centres

- The chairman and national coordinator of the task force, made the disclosure on Thursday, June 4, at a daily briefing

- Boss Mustapha noted that while infected persons stay away from isolation centres their conditions get worse and they die

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As the fight against coronavirus rages on in Nigeria, the federal government has cried out over the refusal of some people who tested positive for COVID-19 to stay at the isolation centres for treatment, The Nation reports.

The chairman and the national coordinator of Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 (PTF), Boss Mustapha, and Dr. Sani Aliyu respectively raised the alarm during the daily briefing in Abuja on Thursday, June 4.

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The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) explained that those who had tested positive died due to the worsening of their conditions while staying away from isolation centres.

The Nigerian government also expressed concern over reports that the public is not supporting health authorities enough for contact tracing.

Mustapha while charging the public to cooperate whenever they are visited for contact tracing by health officials, noted that fatalities have been recorded as a result of the condition of patients who don't stay in isolation facilities for treatment.

He said: “We have received reports about citizens refusing to help with contact tracing and those who refuse to go into isolation after testing positive.

“A number of fatalities have been recorded due to the change in the condition of patients while staying outside the isolation facilities.”

The government also expressed deep worry that some diverted HIV dr*gs were now being used by unscrupulous health facilities to treat COVID-19 infected persons.

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The PTF coordinator corroborating this claim said it was regrettable that some health institutions are using second-line HIV dr*gs for the treatment of the disease.

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Meanwhile, the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has given a mind-blowing submission on the source of most of the cases in the country.

At the Abuja daily briefing on the situation of the virus in Nigeria, the head of NCDC, Chikwe Ihekweazu, admitted that the source of 75% of the cases is still a mystery to the agency.

Ihekweazu stated that at the onset of the pandemic in Nigeria, cases with travel history dropped from 100% to 2% due to the lockdown all over the world, while “23% of cases are contacts of confirmed cases."

However, the NCDC boss pointed out that the development is not a cause for worry, adding that “This is normal & reflects ongoing community transmission in Nigeria.”