To check how
serious Cross River state was about screening for COVID-19, especially as the
state is the only one in the federation without a single case, Taiwo
Adebulu disguises as a patient with a risky travel history and
suspicious symptoms. He narrates his experience with the doctors, nurses and
the test team in this undercover adventure
Crossing Itu
bridge, which marks the boundary between Cross River and Akwa Ibom states, is
like a camel passing through the eye of a needle. Vehicles from Uyo, the Akwa
Ibom capital, don’t go beyond the bridge. All passengers have to alight before
the military checkpoint and pay their way through. While Ben Ayade, governor of
Cross River, claimed he spends nights at the state’s borders as part of
efforts to prevent COVID-19 from entering the state, the same location becomes
a flourishing industry during daytime as security operatives and thugs cash out
at the expense of travellers.
“So, why didn’t you
stay in your state when you know you don’t have money to pay to cross the
bridge? Did we force you to come?” a young man with bloodshot eyes asked as he
scanned me viciously from head to toe.
The security
officials and thugs who mounted roadblocks demanded N500 for each person to
pass through. With N1,500, I scaled the border checks and proceeded to the busy
motor park after the bridge. Ifiok, the motorcyclist who ferried me through the
bridge, said the security officials charge each of them N3,000 daily to operate
across the border. The bus I boarded from the spot where Ifiok dropped me was filled
to the brim with 18 passengers in addition to the driver and his assistant.
Some passengers dropped their face masks to the chin to breathe well as the
rickety white bus shrieked its way to Calabar.
After a three-day
tortuous journey from Lagos, I finally got to the state capital, a thriving
city which appeared tucked away from all the troubles of the world. More
vehicles trooped in from the boundary and discharged passengers at Essien Town
at the entrance to the city. Businesses were booming, sedan taxis loaded with
five passengers crisscrossed the city, while praise and worship beamed from a
nearby church at Satellite Town close to the university. It was already seven
days after the governor lifted the ban on religious gatherings to keep
the “spiritual economy” thriving.
As it stands, Cross
River is the only state in the country without a confirmed positive case of
COVID-19 since the novel virus hit the country in February. According to the
situation report of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) for May 18,
2020, the south-south state had only tested seven samples out of its almost
four million population, while neighbouring states have recorded cases and are
battling community transmission.
‘I AM SCARED.
EVERYONE IS SCARED’
 |
| Patients waiting at the GOPC |
What’s the secret behind Cross River being free of the disease? To find out, I disguised as a patient. As early as 9am, I was among a few of the patients who arrived the general outpatient clinic (GOPC) of family medicine department at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH) – just a few days after two nurses died from suspected symptoms at the hospital. There was palpable anxiety in the air.
“Please, do not
remove your masks while talking to me. I can hear you from here,” an elderly
nurse told patients sitting at the lobby. The nurse directed me to the payment
point where I paid N2,600 as a new patient and I got registered immediately.
When I was ushered
in for consultation, I sat on the chair quite distant from the young female
doctor. She adjusted her face mask and pulled the booklets closer to listen to
me. I complained about chronic headache and involuntary
writhing movements on my left hand. The doctor asked if I was
coughing or having shortness of breath, fever, nausea, sore throat and loss of
taste or smell, symptoms of COVID-19. I answered in the negative. After a
series of questions and answers about my habits, diets and activities, she said
I might need to work on my eating habit and observe some safe health measures.
Then, I asked if I
could get tested for COVID-19 because I was also feeling weak. I told her that
I had travelled to the state from Lagos, through Uyo. She adjusted her seat and
asked more intense questions and this time around, I shuttled between “Yes and
No” as much as it could raise suspicion. The doctor said she was going to call
the state epidemiologist and asked me to go for a malaria test first.
 |
| At 4pm, the GOPC is empty with the reporter waiting for the COVID-19 team |
At that point, the doctor, whom I later learnt was Rosa Inyang, felt unsettled as she was sliding through contacts on her phone. I asked if she was scared. “Yes, I am scared. Everyone is scared,” Inyang said. “Our state has not recorded any COVID-19 case and if you have such a travel history to a flashpoint and you are insisting on COVID-19 test, it is enough to be scared. We don’t know when an index case will be recorded yet. At least, you are honest with your travel history and symptoms. So, we know how to handle this professionally and see the outcome. Some patients would come here and hide their history and end up making us live in fear.”
When my test result
came back, I had malaria. The doctor asked me to wait for the state
epidemiologist team who were already on their way to test me. It was a few
minutes after 10am.
FIVE HOURS
WAITING FOR COVID-19 TEAM
|
| A member of the team that carried out the test |
For the next few
hours, Inyang checked on me repeatedly that the state team was on their way. It
was 4pm and the medical officials at the GOPC had started going home. The
doctor kept calling that state COVID-19 team until she got tired and went home
leaving me in the empty GOPC.
While the department
was virtually empty, I left UCTH. A few minutes later, the state team called me
that they were around for the test. I returned to the teaching hospital. I met
a man and two women who asked me a myriad of questions and collected my
details.
The man later
changed to the PPE suit and began the process for the testing. In about 20
minutes, he was done with the test. The women advised me to go into
self-isolation pending the outcome of my result. When I asked when my result
will be ready, they said it would come out in two days. So, we departed and I
began another long wait for the COVID-19 test result.
CONTROVERSY ON
DEATH OF TWO NURSES IN ONE WEEK AT UCTH
 |
| Inyang calling the state epidemiologist |
While I waited inside the GOPD, I familiarised myself with one of the female nurses who said I was lucky to get tested.
“You are very lucky
to have detected your symptoms on time and insist on having the test. If not,
they won’t come here,” she said.
“We have had
patients who came here exhibiting symptoms of the disease. We will call the
state team for hours and they won’t come until the patient gets tired and
leaves. Most of the time, they say the patient has not exhibited the symptoms.
The doctors had to complain that the state should not be the one taking the
test until the NCDC team came and took over. Two of our colleagues have died
within this week and they exhibited strong symptoms of COVID-19. These are
people we saw with our eyes and knew the symptoms they exhibited. One was a
member of staff and the other came from the general hospital.
“But when their
post-mortem test results came out, we were all surprised they said negative. We
don’t know what is happening. We are all scared. We are trying to be careful
with each patient we manage here. Your case is the first time we will call them
and they actually came.”
MEDICAL COMMUNITY
IN DOUBT
 |
| Ayuk |
In an interview with
Agam Ayuk, the state chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), he
said the association has not established any evidence of a cover-up by the
government, although there are suspicions that there could be cases of
infection in the state.
“As it stands, we
don’t have any recorded confirmed case even though the medical community still
has their own doubts. The level of testing is quite low. We think there should
be an upscaling of surveillance and testing. We’ve complained about delays from
the state epidemiologist team,” Ayuk said.
“We have had
incidences of people who meet certain signs and symptoms of suspected COVID-19
and the results, from we have heard, are negative. As medical experts, we
believe that sometimes we may have false-negative results. Those are
possibilities in testing. But the PCR reduces that possibility to the bare
minimum.
“If I have any
evidence of a cover-up by the state, I will make it public. We have a lot to
lose especially putting our members at risk. We’ve drawn government’s attention
to the fears of our members and we expect them to do what is right. We have
members who have risk factors.”
‘WE WANT TO
REMAIN COVID-19 FREE’
 |
| Beta |
Inyang has been in
constant touch to know my COVID-19 status so that she can also know her fate
but the state epidemiology team has not communicated with me a week after they
took my sample. This has fuelled suspicion among medical workers in the state.
Maybe tests are not really done after samples are collected — just to maintain
the “zero case” status.
When TheCable
contacted Beta Edu, commissioner for health and chairperson of the state
COVID-19 response team, she said the state has been performing its role
effectively.
She said the team is
not responsible for the delayed result of the reporter.
“All results have
been sent to the hospital management. We do not publish people’s names in the
media. It’s against medical ethics,” she said.
“The late nurses’
samples were sent to NCDC reference lab and results returned negative. We don’t
own an accredited laboratory in the state, unless you are saying the lab
results from NCDC are not true. This is over two weeks and all persons who came
in contact with them including family members are all hale and hearty.
Coronavirus is like pregnancy it doesn’t hide.
“We must avoid
rumors and scare. It has made health workers in most states to abandon their
duty post and even Association of Resident Doctors is threatening strike
because of lack of PPE amongst other things. More persons are dying from other
diseases and things like maternal mortality that kills over 3000 daily.
“Due to scare and
the way we have magnified the disease, health workers will neglect more
patients across the country that will lead to death of patients (I am glad the
nurse was not neglected). We must at this point change strategy of reading out
big numbers daily and supports states to get the health system to become
functional or we will destroy fragile the health system more.”
Speaking on the
activities of security officials and thugs who demand bribes from travellers at
the borders, Christian Eta, chief press secretary to the governor, said the
government is not aware of the development.
He said the
government would do anything to police its borders in order to avoid the spread
of the infection into the state.
“I’m not aware of
incidences of that nature. It has not been brought to our notice. There is a
presidential directive banning inter-state movement. How did those people get
to Itu bridge? That’s a fundamental question. They said no movement. So, how
did they get there?” he asked.
“We gave the
responsibility of overseeing the closure of the borders to some of our
commissioners. Two commissioners take the turn to superintend over the closure
of that Itu bridge, both night and day. We have over 50 illegal borders with
Cameroon, so we are spending a lot of money and resources manning those places.
At this point in time, Cross River is COVID-19 free and we want to remain that
way. We will do anything to police our border and we will do that within the
ambit of the law.”
One week after my
test, I am yet to get the result.
This is a special
investigative project by Cable Newspaper Journalism Foundation (CNJF) in
partnership with TheCable, supported by the MacArthur Foundation. Published
materials are not views of the MacArthur Foundation.
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com