Nigeria: Coronavirus patient attempts to escape from isolation centre

The 44-year-old Italian who tested positive for coronavirus in Nigeria on Thursday attempted to escape from the isolation centre he was placed in.

The isolation facility is located at the Mainland Hospital, Yaba, Lagos but health workers there say the facility isn’t in good condition.

Local media in Nigeria reported that a health worker at the hospital said on Friday that the Italian patient was angry about the conditions that he attempted to escape.

The Italian patient works in Nigeria and only returned from Milan, Italy to Lagos, Nigeria on the 25th of February 2020.

He was confirmed to have the virus by the Virology Laboratory of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, part of the Laboratory Network of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

Officials say the patient is clinically stable, with no serious symptoms, and is being managed at the Infectious Disease Hospital in Yaba, Lagos.

Poor health conditions

But a health worker told a local newspaper on condition of anonymity that the patient had been “very upset about the surrounding,” adding that the patient “complained of excessive heat and mosquitoes.”

The health worker also revealed that “the patient wanted to run away yesterday (Thursday). The Italian man, who seems to be an engineer, was very angry that the room where he was kept was very hot.

“There is nothing there (inside the isolation ward) aside from bed and hospital locker. He almost ran away and is still threatening to do that.”

There are also revelations health workers are not wearing the needed protective equipment and the isolation facility doesn’t seem well equipped to fight any major outbreak.

More than 78,000 cases of the respiratory disease have been recorded including three cases in Africa so far.

Victims of coronavirus often suffer from respiratory illness and this new strain of coronavirus was not previously identified in humans.

The virus is a global public health emergency, according to the World Health Organisation and there are concerns it could soon turn out into a global pandemic.