Nnewi, the industrial hub of Anambra State has been thrown into panic following an alleged death of a C0VID-19 patient at Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital (NAUTH) Nnewi.
The patient was said to have been taken to the hospital on Friday by his relations for high malaria-related sickness.
It was gathered that by Saturday morning, the patient started showing symptoms of coronavirus.
The specimen was said to have been taken by the medics in the hospital which was immediately sent to NDDC for confirmation.
The patient according to our source died on Sunday and his family immediately took his dead body away from the hospital.
The result of the specimen taken to NDDC allegedly came out positive on Monday, throwing the staffers of the hospital into a panic.
The panic quickly spread like a wild bush fire, forcing many people to close shop even before the commencement of the day’s curfew imposed by the federal government.
The hospital management we were told, had also directed that all the doctors, nurses and other personnel who had contact with the dead patient should immediately embark on two weeks self-quarantine.
The directive from the hospital management, however, did not go down well with some workers in the hospital who would have preferred the government to quarantine the affected staffers.
“Our lives are in constant danger by virtue of the fact that we are working in NAUTH. Firstly, how can the patient be admitted into the ward when his COVID-19 status has not been established. Again, how can the management direct the doctors, nurses and others who had contact with the dead patient to go on self-quarantine instead of the government to take them to the quarantine centres. This is unfortunate,” a worker who will not want his name in print said.
Attempts to get reactions from the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of NAUTH, Prof Anthony Igwegbe did not yield any positive result as he neither took his call nor replied the SMS message sent to him by our correspondent
