COVID-19 and misconceptions of Kwadon ‘protest’

In the ongoing fight against the dreaded novel coronavirus disease, code-named COVID-19, different states in Nigeria, including Gombe, adopted various measures, in line with the accepted established protocols by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). Even before Gombe State recorded its first COVID-19 index case, Governor Muhammadu Inuwa […]

In the ongoing fight against the dreaded novel coronavirus disease, code-named COVID-19, different states in Nigeria, including Gombe, adopted various measures, in line with the accepted established protocols by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

Even before Gombe State recorded its first COVID-19 index case, Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya had swung into action, mandating the establishment of several COVID-19 isolation centres complete with hundreds of bed spaces, sanitary facilities like running water, hand sanitisers, personal protective equipment for the health workers, ventilators, oxygen concentrators as well as a conducive working environment for the health workers to ensure that they were not infected by the index case and contact cases they were likely to treat.

For the records, Gombe has some of the best COVID-19 isolation and treatment centres you can find in the region, with facilities for the treatment of mild to severe cases. Gombe is also one of the few states to put machineries in motion for the establishment of its own testing centre, having already procured PCR machines waiting for accreditation by NCDC.

Undeniably, Gombe State government was one of the first states, aside the federal government, to set up a COVID-19 Task Force under the chairmanship of a renowned  immunologist and public health expert, Prof. Idris Mohammed and its terms of reference seeks to ensure that the preventive measures put in place by the state government were strictly adhered to and to come up with innovative programmes that would further strengthen the containment efforts and battle against the COVID-19 menace.

Also, at a time many states had not fully grasped the extent and severity of the COVID-19 crisis, Governor Yahaya had imposed a partial lockdown on the state and restricted the inter-state movement of persons to avoid the transmission of the dreaded virus from affected states. If other states had adopted the proactive stance of the purposeful Governor Yahaya’s administration, I believe the rapid spread of the virus would have been greatly curtailed and the people would have been the better for it.

Again, Gombe State is one of the first states to restrict social, cultural and religious congregations involving large gatherings, and appropriate sensitisation to that effect was embarked upon to avoid rumour-mongering and the propagation of falsehood among the populace. To ensure that every segment of the society was carried along in the buildup to the announcement of the restriction orders, the governor first had series of engagements with traditional rulers, religious and community leaders, heads of security agencies and local government officials.

Additionally, Governor Yahaya has mandated a robust testing regime – some may say aggressive – in which hundreds are being tested whether they have shown symptoms of the virus or not. While some other states only test those that have shown symptoms of the virus, it is different in Gombe State as the government, heeding to the advice of health experts, is testing all and sundry, especially those intercepted or those believed to have had contact with the confirmed cases.

As Gombe State was trying hard to attend to its first set of index cases of COVID-19, reports of a protest staged by some asymptomatic carriers of the virus at the Kwadon Isolation Centre were on social and some traditional media recently.

The task force has already put things on record as to what the isolated COVID-19 asymptomatic cases in Kwadon were agitating for as against what was peddled. The alleged non-provision of drugs by the centre’s health officials and the presence of a woman with a smelly wound as well as the welfare of their immediate families were brought forward by them. It should be noted that all the cases tested positive before they were brought to the centre, but they have not shown symptoms of the disease, so the health officials averred that they could not be administered with drugs until they showed symptoms to avoid any unhealthy side effects. Their stay at the centre, therefore, is for observation and to prevent them from infecting others in the wider community.

Therefore, the reported protest arose from a misconception of the treatment process on one hand and the whole COVID-19 pandemic on the other as they wanted to be given medication, which the health officials deemed unnecessary and even dangerous.

Clearly, it appeared the media pounced on the story in an attempt to get materials to inform the public about happenings in the society. But as media practitioners, let’s always be cautious, especially at a time like this. Let’s not sensationalise issues. It does no one any good if at this time we spread news that create panic rather than douse tension among the populace. It has since emerged that fake news has become the order of the day during this period. The media shouldn’t be seen to be giving space and time to people whose major occupation is to create chaos in our ongoing battle against the COVID-19.

The Kwadon incident, it seemed, also gave some politically docile individuals an opportunity to vent their anger of not being in the public domain for some time as they equally cashed in on that to score low political points. As a people, the greatest disservice we can do to ourselves at this time is to politicise the issue of COVID-19. For God’s sake, this is a disease that has no respect for any divide – religion, ethnicity, race, creed, political or any group that one belongs to.

It is therefore, incumbent on all of us to contribute our quota in curtailing the spread of the novel COVID-19 and eliminating it in our society. The earlier we realise that the fight against COVID-19 pandemic is one that we all must work assiduously to win, not just in Gombe State but in the country at large, the better for us as a people.

 

Misilli is the Senior Special Assistant (Media and Publicity) to Gombe State Governor.