Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
The Bayelsa State Government has sent the family of the 49-year-old index case of COVID-19 in the state to an isolation centre for 14 days in line with standard protocol to curtail the spread of the infection.
Although the index case had vehemently rejected the COVID-19 test result which came out positive, the state task force not willing to take chances had isolated her husband and children and their sample collected for testing.
According to investigation the family was traced to the Senior Civil Service quarters at Ovom where they were taken away by health officials to an isolation centre.
Sources at Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital (NDUTH) Okolobiri where the index case has been kept said she had refused to take any drugs insisting that she did not have COVID-19.
Governor Douye Diri had earlier ruled out the state requesting for a second test as it expressed full confidence in the result from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). However, following the stance of the patient a second sample has been obtained and sent for testing.
She was said to have rejected all overtures to use drugs maintaining that the second test would come out negative.
Meanwhile panic heightened in the estate where the index case lived as residents expressed fears that decontamination had not been carried out like the one carried out at the Bayelsa Specialist hospital where she was treated.
Some of the residents who are wondering how she could have contracted the virus because she is one person that rarely goes out due to her health condition are said to have also placed themselves on self- isolation.