The first coronavirus case recorded in Nigerian as its patient quarantined at the Infectious Disease Hospital in Yaba, Lagos.
In a report sighted on the PUNCH, he attempted to escape from the facility lamenting over the fact that there is excessive heat at the facility.
The patient who is an Italian was confirmed to have the virus yesterday and this was three days after he arrived in Nigeria.
He arrived in Lagos from Milan, Italy, before heading to Ogun state where he first showed symptoms of the disease.
Per the report, a health worker at the hospital said the patient threatened to escape quarantine over the alleged poor state of the medical facility.
The health worker at the facility said;
“The patient complained about excessive heat and the presence of mosquitoes at the hospital.
The patient wanted to run away yesterday (Friday). The Italian man, who seems to be an engineer, was very angry that the room where he was kept was very hot. The only thing demarcating the room from other rooms in the ward is a red and white barricade tape. That is where the Italian man that tested positive to coronavirus is kept.
There is no single equipment inside that place. It is just like any other regular hospital room with a bed. That building you see that is being repainted is the original place meant to quarantine coronavirus patients.
As you can see, the place is not ready. The state government is just renovating it, despite the fact that the virus started spreading since December 2019. It is really sad that a country like Nigeria is never ready to medically contain infectious disease outbreak.”
However, the deputy governor of Lagos, Obafemi Hamzat has indicated that the facility, with a 100-bed capacity, was well equipped for containing the disease adding that the patient was receiving adequate treatment and was responding well.
During a television discussion, he said;
“The good thing is that he was brought in yesterday morning and within four hours, he had been diagnosed, so our diagnosis tools seem to work better than we expected. Normally, it takes eight hours.
He is in our biosecurity lab in Yaba. It is a lab we built that can accommodate 100 for now, but it is only one bed that is occupied today. Hopefully, it won’t spread further. We are ready, we are well equipped and he is getting better. The doctor said that he is going to be fine.”
Source: ghgossip.com
