The suspected case is that of a truck conductor I will fake and abreviat his name to avoid stigma, I will call him Musa Samiu (MS, not real names), he was a patient of Tuberculosis having being battling it for over 10 years, according to his father, Mallam Abdullahi S. a poor old man, he look exhausted and unkept, with a few sprinkle of grey all over his chin, sitting on a pierced, thick log of wood, beside a story building standing in front of his mud house.
He spoke exclusively to me at their home in Limawa Area of Minna, Niger State.
Mallam Abdullahi said MS came back from Lagos over two weeks ago, the next day MS went to the ATM close to their house to get some money to visit the hospital over his Tuberculosis case, but he was taken away from there, as members of the community have alerted the COVID-19 state task force team that someone has returned from Lagos and was coughing.
He spent some days in the Minna General Hospital and was discharged just about 3 days ago.
Suddenly, he said, yesterday a team of the covid-19 task force visited their house at about 12:30 am, but could not be able to pick MS who was alerted and got frightened, MS went to a football field to lie, the team visited again and was lucky on the third visit at about 3- 5 am to get MS and was taken to the Minna Isolation centre.
I dug further and was able to speak with MS himself, who confirmed to me that he was released from the hospital 3 days ago, I asked if something was dipped into his nose, he said yes, including “my mouth”he added, it was after that he was released to go home after a few days in the hospital he told me.
MS told me he now passes some blood stained stool, he said he was given food and some drugs today, I calmed him and told nothing will happen to him, he should only follow the Doctor’s instructions.
I also asked if he has any contacts with people since then, he said too numerous to mention because he has alot of friends.
He said he joined a Vehicle from Lagos and alighted in Bida, from there, he joined another vehicle to Minna.
I asked MS where he stayed in Lagos, he told me he stayed at Idichaba ( hope I got that correct?) park.
I went a step further to speak with two of MS’s younger brothers and all confirm the story above.
One thing that will worry anyone is the level of unhygienic the environment is, it is also disturbing that upon the discovery not even Sanitizers were shared, not to mention non fumigation of the home talk more of the area.
MS’s father and his family are glaringly poor, they need quick intervention, medical, social and financial, the authorities have only announced a lockdown of the Area and the state, but no single step has been taken to tackle outbreak which may occur from the contacts after release from Hospital 3 days before his test came back Positive. Wha about the bank ATM he visited? How was he able to get into Minna with lockdown? What about his numerous contacts? What next?
(C) Yahaya Mohammed Usman
More later…..
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