COVID -19 patients who are on the run and fail to submit themselves for isolation are capable of truncating Nigeria’s efforts to curtail the spread of the deadly virus, medical experts have said.
As of May 10, there are 4,399 coronavirus cases in the country, with 778 discharged and 143 dead.
Several reports from across the country reveal how positive COVID-19 patients avoid being treated at the designated isolation centres and how some patients break out from the centres after being admitted.
In Lagos, for instance, many of the patients who had tested positive for COVID-19 are not at the isolation centres because they are on the run, according to Akin Abayomi, the Commissioner for Health.
Laz Ude Eze, a public health physician, said such an act poses a lot of health implications to the patients themselves and the larger society.
“The implication of the escape of persons with confirmed Covid-19 is that they will transmit the virus to others if they mix with the general public. It may further increase the spread of the virus and sabotage the efforts to control it,” Mr Eze said.
Patients On The Run
Last Friday, Mr Abayomi said that many individuals who had tested positive for COVID-19 in the state are fleeing their residence and not submitting themselves for treatment.
Despite that the state had 1,037 active cases as of Friday, only 262 beds were occupied out of the 569 bed-capacity in the state. That meant almost 800 COVID-19 positive patients were not at the isolation facilities, possibly mixing with other residents of the state where safety measures are being violated routinely.
While some patients are yet to be admitted into the facilities, the commissioner said most patients are on the run and desert their homes to avoid being admitted.
“There is also a situation that we experience, when we test people, sometimes they find it difficult to find them. The ambulances will go into community, people will flee their homes, and they make it difficult for us to find them,” Mr Abayomi said.
