Martins Ifijeh
The Reddington Hospital has announced that it has put in place surveillance team across its facilities in Nigeria in readiness to contain any outbreak of the dreaded Coronavirus (COVID-19) especially with a reported case now in Nigeria.
Addressing a press conference in Lagos recently, the hospital management announced that all staff at its facilities have been sensitised and a special surveillance team with requisite training is already in place to detect any potential carrier of the virus.
Group Medical Director, Reddington Hospital, Dr. Tunde Lalude said that for effectiveness of its operation, the hospital team was presently working in consonance with the National Center for Disease Control and the Lagos State Ministry of Health.
The Medical Director, The Reddington Hospital, Ikeja, Dr. Balogun Olafisayo said at about 5:30 am on Thursday, February 26, a Chinese presented with a case of mild fever, upper respiratory symptoms and sore throat at the Ikeja medical facility, and having implemented a surveillance team over the past three weeks given the outbreak of the virus, the medical team present at the facility immediately quarantined him.
“We also asked for his travel history. He traveled back from China January 6, 2020. He resides in Chadom province in China and he flew into Nigeria from Beijing and had a transit stop at Addis Ababa before he arrived Nigeria.
“ Chadom Province is quite far from Wuhan province where the infection is prevalent. He came back six weeks ago which is longer than the incubation period.
“From experience, we know that the Chinese live and work in Nigeria together with others, the possibility of him having in contact with his colleagues who flew in much later and also newer information coming out as to the incubation period which has extended from 14-21 days” , Dr. Olafisayo said.
Olafisayo said that though he has stayed longer than the 21 days but the strong possibility of contact with other colleagues who might have travelled back into the country within that period, gave us concern hence we had to implement all necessary measures to ensure no one is endangered
“Based on this, we informed the emergency response surveillance team in the Lagos Ministry of Health and NCDC, and after testing, he was found to be negative to the virus,” he said.
