By Ewa Innocent, Abakaliki
Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi state has ordered the sealing off of the private hospital in Abakaliki that managed the COVID-19 patient who lost his life in the state.
Umahi, gave the order during an interactive meeting with the NCDC COVID-19 health management and Rapid response team,at the new government house, Ochudo city, Abakaliki.
The governor who was visibly unhappy over the loss of life through the poor management of COVID-19 patient by a private hospital, directed that the owner of the hospital should be arrested and prosecuted, with his licence of occupancy revoked, in line with the Ebonyi State Coronavirus And Other Dangerous Infectious Diseases and Related Matters Law 2020, to serve as a deterrent to other hospitals that may attempt managing COVID-19 patient without following NCDC protocols.
In his words, “The case we lost is a case being managed by private hospitals. I hope that the commissioner for health has sealed the hospital where somebody died of COVID-19? It has to be sealed,and the hospital owner be prosecuted in accordance with our COVID-19 law.
“It should be sealed permanently and the certificate of occupancy revoked to serve as a deterrent to other hospitals,” he ordered.
The governor who also frowned at the report from a section of the media alleging that the COVID-19 death recorded in the state was from the state judiciary, made it clear that such a report was false as no member of the state judiciary died from COVID-19.
“Nobody died in the judiciary. All we did was that we reported one death as a result of COVID-19 case”, he said.
He warned that such impressions should be corrected to avoid unnecessary panic.
Meanwhile,the leader of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) Rapid Response Team in Ebonyi state, Dr. Sophia Usuwa; Commissioner for Health Ebonyi state, Dr. Daniel Umezurike; and the Chief Medical Director, Dr. Onwe Emeka Oga, assured that the team would continue to work assiduously to their health mandate to scale down cases of COVID-19 in the state.
