Covid-19: Patient Who Absconded From Hospital Dies At Home
The Kebbi State government has announced the death of a COVID-19 patient who was said to have earlier absconded from the hospital after his samples were taken to be tested for the dreaded virus.
According to reports, the deceased was said to be a 60-year-old man known to be diabetic and hypertensive.
The state governor’s Special Adviser on Media, Yahaya Sarki, disclosed this in a statement made available to journalists.
Sarki quoted the state Commissioner for Health, Alhaji Jaafaru Mohammed, as making the disclosure while giving a situation report on the pandemic in the state.
The deceased was the second case of the virus in the state.
The statement quoted the commissioner as saying, “The second case (of COVID-19 in the state) was a patient from the Federal Medical Centre, Birnin Kebbi. He was a 60-year-old man, a known diabetic and hypertensive patient.
“He was brought to the centre from the Usman Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto, by his relatives.
“After reviewing the case by a consultant, COVID-19 was suspected and our Rapid Response Team swung into action.”
The commissioner was further quoted as saying that the deceased’s samples were taken for test on April 25 while he absconded before he could be taken to the isolation centre.
He said the man died at home the following day, April 26.
He added, “The corpse was taken to UDUTH mortuary, contrary to earlier claim that it was taken to Benue State for burial.
“On April 29, 2020, the result of his test turned out to be positive and the contacts tracing team swung into action.”
According to the commissioner, the team had traced 12 close contacts and 17 other contacts of the deceased.
He said samples of the contacts had been taken to the reference laboratory in UDUTH, Sokoto, while the Sokoto State Epidomologist and the management of UDUTH were contacted.
He appealed to the people of the state to remain calm as everything humanly possible was being done by the task force, other relevant health professionals and stakeholders, to contain the spread of the disease.
