LUTH, UITH isolate 40 medical workers amid COVID-19 scare

At least 40 health workers, including doctors and nurses, have been put in isolation following their contact with people infected with COVID-19 in Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba and the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital.

Professor Wasiu Adeyemo, LUTH’s Chairman of the Medical Advisory Council, on Tuesday, told journalists that 12 workers of the health institution had gone into isolation.

According to him, the 12 workers might have had contact with a patient, who died of COVID-19 at the hospital last week.

At the UITH, 28 health workers are in isolation for coming in contact with an accountant, Muideen Obanimomo that died of COVID-19 in the hospital on Thursday.

The isolation of the UITH and LUTH workers on Tuesday fuelled fear about lack of protection for health workers treating COVID-19 patients in the country.

The President of the Nigerian Medical Association, Dr Francis Faduyile, in a statement to commemorate the World Health Day, on Tuesday expressed concern about hazards faced by healthcare professionals, including nurses, treating COVID-19 patients.

On Tuesday, the management of the UITH said 28 staff members of the hospital involved in the treatment of Obanimomo had been in isolation.

The Chief Medical Director of the UITH, Prof. Abdullahi Yussuf, disclosed this just as the Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq, said the state government had begun tracing 75 persons who had contact with Obanimomo and another deceased.

Yussuff said that about 28 members of staff of the hospital involved in the treatment of Obanimomo were in isolation.

He said, “Already, all the UITH workers with close contact with the deceased patient on the night of his admission, or his corpse have been ordered to proceed on self-isolation. Besides, the ‘A and E’ ward and the ambulance used to convey his corpse to Offa had been promptly fumigated.