Uneasy calm in Niger over escape of COVID-19 woman as state records 3 new cases

There has been uneasy calm in Niger State among the citizenry following the escape of a woman from the state government’s isolation centre as the state records three fresh coronavirus COVID-19 positive cases.

The State Commissioner for Health and Hospital services, Dr Muhammad Maku Sidi, said the new cases include a medical doctor who returned from Kano who is an employee of Federal Medical Centre, Bida; a returnee from Akwa Ibom State who is said to be an indigene of Kagara, in Rafi Local Government Area of the state; and a female resident of Suleja town, in Suleja Local Government Area of the state who was also a returnee from Kano State.

The commissioner stated further that the three new confirmed cases, who were already quarantined at the state government’s facility, were being handled accordingly, highlighting that one confirmed cases out of the six recorded so far from the state, had been discharged after testing negative to the virus twice.

Dr Maku Sidi said that a confirmed case from Kano, hitherto in isolation at the Minna isolation centre, had absconded and that the committee was making frantic efforts to trace and return the person back to the centre.

He said the female victim had allegedly started showing the symptoms of the disease from Kano, but found her way back to Niger State allegedly due to lack of attention, stressing that she was immediately approached by some members of the state COVID-19 committee following a tip-off where she profusely denied exhibiting any of the symptoms.

ALSO READ: WHO deploys additional personnel to support COVID-19 response in Kano

Although the commissioner did not say categorically how the woman escaped from isolation centre, it was however learnt that the positive case complained about the poor condition of the isolation before escaping to an unknown destination.

However, the state government has discharged the second index case earlier recorded in the state while the first case was still under medication.

Meanwhile, some persons quarantined at the government’s facility in Minna on Wednesday staged a protest against the perceived inhuman conditions at the facility in which they were being kept.

While expressing their anger over the conditions at the facility, the protesters claimed that feeding was not forthcoming from government and requested to be allowed to go home instead of dying by hunger in quarantine.

Also, some residents of Minna, the state capital, have expressed concerns over the porous borders across the state as responsible for increasing COVID-19 cases in the state.

A resident of Minna identified as Zubairu Imam lamented that government has consistently refused to enforce the closure of borders with order states thereby making it possible for coronavirus carriers to enter Niger at will causing high risk to the people in the state.

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE