Suspected COVID-19 cases: NCDC’s delayed response responsible for our travails – relatives

IN late April, an emotionally-laden audio message went viral on social media. It was more of a Save Our Souls (SOS) call demanding urgent intervention.

Oblivious to many, Selma Ahmed, a 70-year-old grandmother was behind the emergency message. The call made to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) was to report a suspected case in Kano and see how the Centre could intervene. But the efforts yielded no result until the old woman eventually lost her son-in-law to the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19).

She said she was disappointed that the NCDC official to whom she spoke was deceptive in his response. The official promised to visit her son-in-law, a suspected case of Coronavirus but refused to show up after several calls to the Centre. And the young man died hours later.

She said her son-in-law was earlier treated for typhoid and high fever before his case became worse. Her daughter who was married to the deceased repeatedly called the NCDC, but the agency’s lines were unresponsive.

At some point, concerned individuals offered an alternative number they could use to reach out to the NCDC which they called repeatedly, but no one answered.

Unknown to the family the agency’s office in Kano state was already shut down due to the spread of the infection at the centre.

Ahmed said as a result of their failed attempts, she put an emergency call to the Abuja NCDC office. And the NCDC officials allegedly promised to respond to the situation.

“NCDC said they will go there. Every 30 minutes, I will call the NCDC because the one in Kano were (sic) not responding. He (the operator) was telling me they would soon go there, they would soon go there! When the thing was getting out of hand, I called this man, please tell me the truth, what is happening?

“Then he told me that the NCDC in Kano has been shut down. I said ‘you know they have shut down and you are telling me they will soon go there, why did you continue to play with my intelligence,'” she queried.

All she got in response was “sorry madam.” Frustrated, the old woman later called on the authorities to save her daughter and children who also might have been exposed to coronavirus.

But Ahmed family was not the only victim of NCDC’s negligence.



“NCDC promised to visit my father, we waited over 3 hours but no one showed”

On 30th April, a lady identified as Martha also disclosed on social media how NCDC failed to respond after many calls for help.

Her father, an airline employee was symptomatic of the COIVD-19 disease.

Like the grandmother who lost her son-in-law, Martha also relied on social media to get the NCDC’s attention.

“Please guys I need you to help me retweet this until NCDC sees this. We have been trying to get them [NCDC] to see my dad he is an airline staff and he is having coronavirus symptoms,” says Marteetarh

Martha later reported on Twitter that she finally got through to NCDC, but the officials did not show up.

Seeing the tweet which had garnered so much reaction on the social media, Kano State Ministry of Health @KNSMOH advised she call the state COVID-19 emergency number.

The state authority proceeded to share with her the hotline numbers; 0909-399-5333, 0909-399-5444 and 0800-COVIDKN.

“Please do call one of the above hotlines and explain your case they will surely respond…..we pray with you,” the officials tweeted.

But in her response, her family had earlier placed a call to the state health authorities yet no one showed up, three hours after they promised to visit.

“We called in the morning, they said they were coming 3 hours later but they didn’t show up.”

On 2nd April, she announced that the NCDC eventually reached out to her family. That was about two days after.

I had similar unpleasant experience – I was told to visit the hospital

Also narrating his experience, a man identified as @a_Crownofwealth on social media said he arrived the country from the United States on 1st March, but nine days after, he started developing symptoms of COVID-19.

According to him, the ailment which started with a headache became worse such that he had pains at his lungs and could not take a deep breath.

“NCDC did the same thing to me. I came back from USA on March 1st. On March 10th. I started seeing symptoms, I could not sleep for seven days straight, with headache, pain in my neck, geld, and so on. I called Osogbo state line, I was told to go to the hospital.

“… I can’t even take a deep breath. Then I had palpitations in my heart. Felt stiffness in my back and neck.”

Luckily, he later tested negative after visiting the hospital. “I have never taken medications like this in my entire life. I have been treating every symptom that comes with it,” he noted.





They did exactly the same to me

In Lagos state, there are a number of reported cases which went viral. Among them is a man identified as @oluwastoner1 on social media. He said after observing the symptoms, he went on self-isolation for 14 days, stressing that he denied his roommates access to his room for the period and was conscious not to spread the disease.

“They did exactly the same thing to me,” Oluwastoner said.

Narrating his experience, he shared how he further developed a sore throat, high temperature, headache and mild difficulty in breathing.

“NCDC told me to treat myself for cold flu but the symptoms persisted. I called severally they refused to come….”

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/suspected-covid-19-cases-ncdcs-delayed-response-responsible-for-our-travails-relatives/

I raised this alarm today on here. NCDC stats you're been fed is fraud. It doesn't reflect the situation on ground