Two COVID-19 patients return after escaping Borno isolation centre

The two COVID-19 patients who escaped from the isolation centre in Maiduguri have resurfaced on Monday.

One of the two, Abbas Hassan, 24 male, who tested positive was found after he was traced to a residence in Maiduguri at about 2am, the Commissioner for Health, Dr Salisu Kwaya-Bura, revealed.

The commissioner said a combined team of health surveillance and investigation team backed by a police escort, traced the patient who was in a critical state to his family house in Gwange II.

He said he was immediately moved on a stretcher and had since been on a ventilator at an isolation centre.

He said health workers were doing everything humanly possible to revive the patient while a contact tracing and surveillance team had been deployed to identify persons who may have had direct and indirect contacts with him for risk assessment, isolation advice and collection of samples for tests.

The second, Hauwa Mohammed, 42-year-old female, who was declared at large after testing positive for COVID-19 is said to have reported herself to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital.

She disclosed that she had been on self-isolation since her sample was taken for the test due to exposure of a confirmed case days earlier.

Borno’s commissioner for health and secretary of the state’s response team told journalists that Hauwa brought herself in a very responsible and medically professional manner which was highly commendable.