Bayelsa: COVID-19 patients’ contacts decry delay in test results

Some contacts with COVID-19 patients and those with symptoms similar to viral infection in Bayelsa State have decried delays in getting results from the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) laboratories either in Irrua, Edo State or Port Harcourt in Rivers State. It was gathered that the worst affected by the situation are medical personnel […]

Some contacts with COVID-19 patients and those with symptoms similar to viral infection in Bayelsa State have decried delays in getting results from the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) laboratories either in Irrua, Edo State or Port Harcourt in Rivers State.

It was gathered that the worst affected by the situation are medical personnel who had contact with confirmed cases in the course of their duties and have since gone on self-isolation for two weeks while the test results are still being awaited.

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Most of the suspected cases are said to have developed mild symptoms of the virus including fever, headache and others, and are being kept at the isolation centres.

A health practitioner confided in Daily Trust that, “As it stands now, a lot of us who have been involved with managing patients who are confirmed COVID-19 positive according to the protocol will go into self-isolation for two weeks.

“After the period, we cannot still have results of our samples sent for tests at Irrua Specialist Hospital in Benin and University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital; we do not know what is causing the delays”.

The Chairman of Medical Advisory Committee in NDUTH, Dr Johnbull Jumbo, had, during the inauguration of additional isolation facility last week, lamented that there are so many suspected COVID-19 cases awaiting results of tests from the NCDC.

The Deputy Chairman of Bayelsa State COVID-19 Task Force and Permanent Secretary in the state Ministry of Health, Dr Inodu Apoku, in a statement yesterday had acknowledged the delays, explaining that it was due to scarcity of reagents at the NCDC laboratories in Benin and Port Harcourt.

He disclosed that the state has had over 300 pending samples of suspected COVID-19 test at laboratories in the past two weeks.