The coronavirus patient quarantined at the Infectious
Disease Hospital in Yaba, Lagos, attempted to escape from the facility on
Friday, according to PUNCH.
The patient, an Italian, was confirmed to have the virus on
Friday morning, three days after he arrived in the country. He flew in from
Milan, Italy, into Lagos before heading to Ogun state where he first showed
symptoms of the disease.
The newspaper quoted a health worker at the hospital as
saying the patient threatened to escape quarantine over the alleged poor state
of the medical facility.
“The patient complained about excessive heat and presence of
mosquitoes at the hospital,” the health official reportedly said.
 |
| The hospital where the patient is kept |
“The patient wanted to run away yesterday (Friday). The Italian man, who seems to be an engineer, was very angry that the room where he was kept was very hot. The only thing demarcating the room from other rooms in the ward is a red and white barricade tape. That is where the Italian man that tested positive to coronavirus is kept.
“There is no single equipment inside that place. It is just
like any other regular hospital room with a bed. That building you see that is
being repainted is the original place meant to quarantine coronavirus patients.
“As you can see, the place is not ready. The state
government is just renovating it, despite the fact that the virus started
spreading since December 2019. It is really sad that a country like Nigeria is
never ready to medically contain infectious disease outbreak.”
When approached, a health worker said not to have worn any
personal protective equipment required for the nature of the disease being
treated, reportedly said: “What is coronavirus? Gloves and face masks cannot do
anything. We have been working here for years with people that have deadly diseases.
At last, all of us will die.”
 |
| Akin Abayomi, Lagos commissioner of health, inspecting the facility |
On Friday, Obafemi Hamzat, deputy governor of Lagos, had
said the facility, with a 100-bed capacity, was well equipped for containing
the disease.
He said the patient was receiving adequate treatment and was
responding well.
“The good thing is that he was brought in yesterday morning
and within four hours, he had been diagnosed, so our diagnosis tools seem to
work better than we expected. Normally, it takes eight hours,” Hamzat had said
on a television programme.
“He is in our biosecurity lab in Yaba. It is a lab we built
that can accommodate 100 for now, but it is only one bed that is occupied
today. Hopefully, it won’t spread further. We are ready, we are well equipped
and he is getting better. The doctor said that he is going to be fine.”
Prior to the outbreak of the disease, the federal government
assured Nigerians that it was ready to contain the virus in the event of an
outbreak.
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