Five Covid19 positive patients including a nursing mother have been given a clean bill of health and discharged in Uyo, Tuesday after being confirmed negative to the dreaded virus by the Nigerian Center for Diseases Control, NCDC.
Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Dominic Ukpong who made the disclosure while addressing newsmen at the Ibom Specialist Hospital shortly after their discharge said one of the discharged survivors was a medical worker with the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital.
Flanked by the Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Prof. Emmanuel Ekanem and Dr. Martins Akpan of the Primary HealthCare Development Agency, Dr. Ukpong explained that the nursing mother had to be given special treatment at home since she had a 7months baby and two infants ages two and three respectively in her care.
“I commend Governor Emmanuel for putting in place a means through which we were able to administer medical care to that woman because there was no way we could have brought her and three children into this facility, since none of the children had tested positive.
“Her samples have now come out negative and she has also been discharged along with the other four cases”
On the reported case of 50 medical workers awaiting testing at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, Dr Ukpong maintained that, “I am not aware of such number of people lining up for testing at UUTH.
“The one we have actually profiled and met the criteria for testing was among those discharged today, a staff of the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital”.
“Yesterday (Monday) I was at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital to commission an isolation ward”, he stated, adding that, he has frequent interactions with the Chief Medical Director of the Teaching Hospital and any such development had not been brought before him.
On contact tracing, the Commissioner disclosed that the state has so far done 458 contact tracing, indicating about 99.1% attainment as acknowledged by NCDC.
Fielding questions from reporters on some of the concerns raised on the testing modalities and other issues, Dr. Ukpong stated “Scientifically, there are criteria for Covid19 testing, and we follow the criteria as set out by NCDC.
He said the Governor Emmanuel has performed very well in the fight against the disease, especially judging from the huge number of the index cases and the gradual decline in the numbers, but urged Akwa Ibom people to continue observing the laid down precautionary measures in order to check the spread of disease in the state.
Also speaking, the CMD of Ibom Specialist Hospital, Prof. Emmanuel Ekanem commended the facilities and response strategy provided by the Akwa Ibom State government in preventing the spread of Covid19 pandemic in the state, and maintained that the hospital management was very satisfied with the sincerity of the government.