Fears grips Enugu hospital as nurse tests positive for COVID-19

Palpable fears may have enveloped the National Orthopedic Hospital, Enugu as no less than 30 doctors, nurses and other workers have been asked to proceed on 14 days self Isolation after one of its nurses tested positive for Coronavirus.

The nurse was said to have been infected by her husband but had been reporting for duties until she started showing signs of contracting the virus last week.

“The hospital is now in disarray because she has been reporting for duties. We never knew that her husband was said to have tested positive to the virus. So, on Monday, all the doctors, nurses among others were asked to go into 14-day isolation”, one of the doctors confirmed to the Guardian on anonymity

He stated that already samples had been taken for tests, stressing that the “danger is that we have made several contacts both within and outside the hospital environment”.

State Chairman of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Dr Ike Okwesili who confirmed the story stated that all the units that had contact with the nurse had been shut down.

“That is the practice to avoid more infections. Even the people that had contact with the case at UNTH, Enugu have all been isolated. That unit has been closed down for another 14 days and the entire hospital is being watched”, he said.

A young man infected with the virus had died before his result came out over the weekend at the UNTH. Doctors who attended to him we’re said to be treating a different case until the result of his samples was released. The case was the first death of the virus in the state.