From Desmond Mgboh, Kano
The Kano State Government has shut down Indian owned UHC Hospital for breach of protocol in the management of COVID-19 cases in the state.
The hospital, which is situated along Bayerio University Road/Red bricks axis in the state capital, was charged with admitting patients with severe COVID- 19 cases instead of referring them to designated isolation facilities in the state.
A statement signed by the Kano State Commissioner for Information, Mohammed Garba, said that the action of the hospital was in conflict with the standards set by the state task force on COVID- 19, adding that the hospital was only supposed to manage mild cases of the disease.
The statement regretted that arising for this misapplication of the standard, two COVID-19 patients had recently died in the hospital while another patient with a severe case had died on the way to the hospital.
The statement, which followed an inspection visit to the said hospital by officials of the Kano State Task Force on COVID- 19, in the company of the state Commissioner for Health, Dr Aminu Ibrahim Tsanyanwa, indicated that two other patients with severe cases of the disease have been transferred to an isolation centre in the state.
It added that all other COVID- 19 patients currently on admission in the closed hospital have also been taken to Murtala Mohammed Specialists Hospital and Mallam Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital in the state.
According to the statement, the hospital would remain closed pending the resolution of the matter between the management of the hospital and the state government.
Daily Sun reports that most foreign nationals who become infected with the virus do not go to designated isolation centres for the management of COVID-19 infections, preferring to use notable facilities and medical practitioners who either manage them at home or, in the worst cases, attend to them in private hospitals.