PAUL ORUDE BAUCHI
No fewer than 10 health personnel have tested positive for CoronaVirus.
The development is coming since the index case was recorded in the state on March 24th.
The Executive Chairman of the Bauchi State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Rilwan Mohammed disclosed this while giving a brief at the State COVID-19 Press Conference at the Government House on Wednesday.
“We have realised that we have a big problem in the Azare zone, it is very close to Kano and most people go to Kano to do shopping and other things. We still have a problem on how to control this,” Mohammed said.
“We have so many doctors and nurses that are getting infected. Today, we sent some people to go there (Azare) and find out what the problem is. The also told me that they need some training and we are planning to do that. They will do a fact-finding on why so many doctors and nurses are getting infected in that area and their families are also infected and we have to follow their families up.
“Ten medical personnels made up of four doctors, six health workers including some nurses. Some of them are in Bauchi while some are in Azare but we have a higher number of them in the Azare zone.”
Mohammed who heads the Surveillance and Contact Tracing sub-committee of the State Task Force on COVID-19 and Lassa Fever, disclosed that six private hospitals have also been affected and this has become necessary for the government to train them.
“We plan to train private health providers in the Bauchi state because we realized that six private hospitals are involved in this crisis and we have one case or the other in those hospitals.
“We need to train all the private health care providers because they don’t have the knowledge and there is a process,” he stated.
He said one of the cases that is really of concern to them is the toddler, the four year old child that got infected from one of the contacts pointing out that it is a serious issue “but he is doing very fine at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital here in Bauchi and is receiving treatment and management.”
He stressed that “One of the things that we found out is the issue of denial, some of the patients that we found out are positive are denying. So we need our traditional and religious leaders to help us in that regard in sensitizing the people.
“So, people should not hide when they suspect they have the virus, if they do, they may end up killing themselves.
We are overstretched now, the Teaching Hospital can receive only about 120 (bedspaces), Bayara is 120, we want to expand to other places.”
He declared that anybody that goes to a high risk state and returns, will be quarantined immediately that person gets into the state.