The government of Niger state, north-central Nigeria, says a suspected coronavirus patient has escaped from the isolation centre in Bida where he was being managed.
Afriupdate reports that the suspected patient, according to the government, has been declared wanted.
“We are surprised that he escaped, and how he escaped from the isolation centre is still a mystery to us but a manhunt for the man has been mounted,” Commissioner for Health and Hospital Services, Dr. Mohammed Makunsidi, said on Wednesday.
“We heard of the arrival of a driver that is said to have tested positive to Coronavirus who was being managed at an isolation centre. We heard he escaped into Bida, so we are after him now.
“Members of the state task force on COVID-19 and officials of the Ministry of Health and Hospital Services are in Bida area of the state to locate him and make sure he does what the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has asked him to do.”
He said that two other persons who arrived Kontagora from the UK and Canada had been quarantined, adding that they were undergoing tests.
He also disclosed that another man from Kagara town had also been taken to the isolation centre in Minna due to outcry from his community that he might have come in contact with Chinese nationals working at the Zungeru Hydro Electricity plant.
“The foreigner in question was said not to have even traveled out of the community for over a year but the people said they remained unconvinced,” he said.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Wednesday night confirmed 23 new cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country, bringing the total to 174.
Nine of the latest cases were recorded in Lagos state, seven in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, while five were confirmed in Akwa Ibom, with Kaduna and Bauchi recording one each.
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