The University of Uyo Health Center has been shut down indefinitely following a reported case of COVID-19 in the facility on Monday.
A source gathered that activities at the health centre came to a halt when one of its patients tested positive to the virus.
A medical staff, who pleaded anonymity, said the centre was closed down to enable the management carry out a decontamination exercise, having unknowingly admitted a COVID-19 patient.
“We were still running skeletal services to help people, especially the pregnant women and women on labour. But the recent experience has made the place unsafe for everyone, so we had to close down for proper decontamination.
“While on operation, we tried to ensure that no other person except the patients were allowed into the wards. And new mothers without complications were discharged few hours after delivery. But now we can no longer help people,” he said.
It was gathered that a pregnant woman on labour who arrived the health centre was turned back, a situation which got the woman and her husband to rush to a private home to have their baby.
An elderly woman, who also arrived at 9am but was turned back lamented “I don’t know how to cope with other healthcare facilities. They understand my situation better, that is why I had to come alone, without any of my children. I just hope COVID-19 would not deny us access to basic healthcare”.
The Director of Information, University of Uyo, Mrs. Blossom Okorie when contacted said the shutdown was to allow for fumigation. She defended that the closure had nothing to do with COVID-19 as the management was simply carrying out a Federal government directive.
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