David Onwuchekwa, Nnew and Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsha and Geoffrey Anyanwu, Enugu
There was stampede at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital (NAUTH), Nnewi, Anambra State, following the arrival of a suspected coronavirus patient.
Some doctors and non-medical staff were said to have fled once it was announced that a COVID-19 patient had been brought into the hospital.
But Chief Medical Director of the NAUTH, Prof. Anthony Igwegbe, dismissed what happened as a stampede.
He clarified that the male patient brought to the hospital an alleged to be COVID-19 positive had a history of visiting the hospital where the first Anambra index case was admitted.
He said some of the doctors having known the history of the patient were hesitant to attend to him as a result of fear, but said the situation was later handled professionally.
The CMD said the patient was put at the right place as a suspect, but not quarantined, pending when his result would be out having taken his blood sample to Irrua Specialist Hospital, Edo State.
Meanwhile, the relocation of the foodstuffs markets in Nnewi because of the control of COVID-19 spread had been a source of worry to petty traders who imagined how they could transport their wares from the site of their present market to a new location.
Some market women at Obi Nsoedo foodstuffs market, Okpunegbu, Umudim, Nnewi said they were confused and incapacitated. “How can we move our wares from our present site to a new location just like that. No vehicles are allowed on the road, no tricycles to help us convey our goods. It is difficult,” one of them told Daily Sun.
APC calls for contact tracing, mass tests, social distancing in Anambra
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Anambra State has called for mass tests, contact tracing and social distancing to curtail the spread of coronavirus in the state.
The state Publicity Secretary, Chief Okelo Madukaife, in a statement thanked Governor Willie Obiano, for his broadcast on Saturday, the first since the confirmation of a COVID-19 positive case in the state on April 10.
“If someone who has turned out to be an index case beat the border closure in Anambra State, does it not vindicate us in our statement of March 29 that our supposedly closed borders were porous with people bribing their ways into the state without any ‘ medical protocol’?
“Should the governor not have addressed that issue with a definite course of action to plug the loopholes and make a difference, so that while Anambra citizens are staying home, others will not be corruptly pushing the virus in further through the borders, particularly since all states from Lagos to Anambra – Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Edo and Delta, are not COVID 19- free. If the staff in St. Joseph’s Hospital report that Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) did not respond promptly to their call for the patient to be investigated, and the hospital had to seek help through the state teaching hospital, does it not vindicate us that Anambra State which now had to go to Lagos for tests and lose many days, would require a testing centre in the state?
“In consolidation, Governor Obiano in his second broadcast informed Anambra State that nine samples were sent to Irrua, Edo State for testing, out of which only four results were ready at the time. The gap left in not updating the state of those five outstanding tests results, before this latest test was done in Lagos is an avoidable gap and perhaps an assumption, that Anambra people are absent-minded. Unless there are things being covered up, that update is now required. What with the reports that the COVID 19 case is on the run, a report which has not been debunked and the index case attending a large meeting in his hometown recently,” Madukaife said.
Be considerate with tenants, Ekwunife begs landlords
Senator Uche Ekwunife has appealed to landlords in the country to be more considerate with their tenants at this period when there .
Ekwunife who represents Anambra Central made the appeal while reacting to the two weeks extension of the lockdown of the FCT, Lagos and Ogun states by President Muhammadu Buhari and the lockdown of Anambra by the Governor Willy Obiano.
Noting that she was touched by the hardship and frustration the people were passing through due to the pandemic, Ekwunife who has been supporting her constituents with relief materials, urged the citizens to support efforts of government at the federal and state levels to ensure that the virus was contained.
“As difficult as it may seem, the measures deployed by government both at the states and federal level have become necessary as our country and the world at large battle to contain the spread of COVID-19. While I am aware that this lockdown will impact heavily on our economy, particularly the poor and vulnerable, I encourage us to take the necessary steps as advised by the government and healthcare providers to ensure that the disease does not spread in our state.