There is panic in Borno State as a nurse died on Saturday at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital of suspected coronavirus.
The news of the death of the man, Babangida Buba, a retired nurse with the Hospital Management Board, Borno, created panic as it might be the first case of coronavirus death in the state.
The deceased after leaving the services of the state government joined Medecins Sans Frontieres otherwise called Doctors Without Borders and worked with the organisation in Pulka before he died.
Buba, an anaesthetic nurse, was rushed to Maiduguri from Pulka last week when his health condition deteriorated.
Some posts on the social media further stirred speculations that the deceased must have died of COVID-19.
A post on the social media by one of his colleagues read, “The first COVID-19 death has been recorded in the UMTH, Borno State.
“The deceased was admitted to the Medical Ward III last week and died under suspicious circumstances which led to a test being conducted on the corpse and the result came back positive for COVID-19.
“The bad thing is that he had contact with several health workers both within and outside the UMTH. He was brought from Pulka to the UMTH by two nurses who are also now at risk together with their families.”
However, the Borno State Deputy Governor, who is also the Chairman of the State Task Force on COVID-19, Alhaji Usman Kadafur, called on the people not to panic, insisting that the case was under control.
Kadafur said, “A sample has been taken and the result has been communicated to the Nigeria Centre for Diseases Control, the people that are mandated to make a statement on that. But as a committee, we are working and reviewing things in the town so for now, I assure you that if there is anything from the outcome of the NCDC, we will make it public.”
The deputy governor added that though there was no restriction in the Maiduguri metropolis, “if there is a need to do so, we will do that but for now, we only have the inter-state lockdown into the state.”
PUNCH
