AKWA IBOM GOVT OFFICIAL REACTS ON FOUR COVID 19 CASES
Akwa Ibom State Government has reacted to four patients of COVID19 who recently tested negative to the novel virus.
FOUR SUSPECTED A’IBOM COVID-19 PATIENTS TESTED NEGATIVE, DISCHARGED FROM IBOM SPECIALIST HOSPITAL
Four suspected COVID-19 patients have been tested negative and discharged from the Akwa Ibom state Ibom Multi- Specialty Hospital with one positive case admitted at the isolation facility of the Quatenary medical centre.
The Commissioner for Health and COVID-19 Incident Manager, Dr. Dominic Ukpong, announced this friday during his interaction with newsmen at the Ibom Multi-Specialty Hospital, Uyo.
Flanked by the State Epidemiologist Dr Umanaette , Chairman Hospital management Board Dr David Udoumo and Permanent Secretary Hospital Management Board Mrs Stella Etukakpan , Ukpong said that the suspected cases were discharged following the release of five results out of the thirty-one samples earlier sent to the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) by the State COVID-19 Management Committee for testing, after contact tracing and suspicions based on laid down procedure.
The Health boss explained that the thirty-one suspected cases were quarantined at the Holding Area pending the release of their test results by NCDC.
“We recently tested thirty-one patients and we have started getting the results. The final results will be coming in this evening. We’ve got five results so far and of the five results, four are negative, so we discharge them”, Dr. Ukpong said.
The state COVID-19 Management Committee used the occasion to express appreciation to the State Governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, for ensuring that adequate logistics have been put in place for the discharge of it duties and appealed to the public not to stigmatise the suspected patients, stressing that Covid-19 is not a death sentence.
Dr. Ukpong decried the activities of some taxi operators who in a bid to avoid being apprehended by law enforcement agents, give facemasks to passengers only to retrieve it for other users when they disembark from their vehicles, warning that such gesture enhances the spread of the virus and advised every person to acquire a mask for himself.
Also speaking , the state Chairman, Hospital Management Board, Dr. David Udoumoh, said that the result calls for joy and thanksgiving to God, as it has dowsed the apprehension and confusion that trailed sample collection for testing of the thirty-one suspected cases.
Udoumoh who explained that testing is done based on protocol and case management requirements, affirmed that the four patients whose results have been received have tested sufficiently negative to be discharged from the holding area.
