Two patients who tested positive to the Coronavirus in Borno State are on the run, the state government has revealed.
The State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Salisu Kwaya-Bura, who disclosed this on Sunday, has called on residents of Maiduguri to be on the alert.
Kwaya-Bura who is also the Secretary of the Borno High-Powered Committee on Coronavirus, identified the individuals as a 24-year-old male and a 42-year-old female, who have gone into hiding to avoid being taken to an isolation centre.
He said surveillance teams had been deployed to locate and return them to the isolation centre.
According to him, “the male patient at first responded to a phone call from the team after his sample was collected but switched off his phone when he learnt he tested positive.
“When samples of patients with contacts to index cases are collected, they are normally advised to go on self-isolation.
“They give their contacts so they can be reached when results are out. This is the standard medical procedure.
“You can’t detain someone with suspected contact. We do not have the lawful powers to do that. Other patients were also allowed to leave but they came into isolation centres and we have 19 of them in two isolation centres
“However, the young man in question, chose to go into hiding”, he added.
He disclosed that “the 16 Covid-19 cases recorded in Borno emanated from community transmission while 14 others were connected to the index case,” he said.
He therefore called on anyone who tests positive to the virus not to see it as a death sentence, as majority of those who test positive have recovered.
