A suspected COVID-19 patient attempting to visit the newly-opened isolation centre at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) was on Friday turned back by policemen enforcing the lockdown in the state.
Popular investigative journalist, Fisayo Soyombo took to Twitter to share details of the incident on Friday.
According to him, the incident occurred in the Iyana-Dopemu area of the state.
He said that the suspected COVID-19 patient had complained of “shortness of breath” among other symptoms and was very sick.
The journalist noted that the patient had contacted the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) through one of the phone numbers provided and had yet to get any response since Sunday, hence his decision to visit LUTH.
Soyombo tweeted, “This morning, policemen around Iyana-Dopemu, Lagos, prevented a very sick Nigerian from getting to the hospital. This is someone who says he is personally convinced he is COVID-19-positive (I insist he must get tested first before he can reach that conclusion, though).
“After trying to get @NCDCgov‘s attention for testing without success since Sunday, I urged him to try the COVID-19 isolation centre recently opened by LUTH. But, despite his pleas, he couldn’t get to LUTH; the police insisted he turned back since he had no LUTH patient card.
“We’re talking about someone who was going to become a first-time LUTH patient. The policemen initially wanted to arrest him but they changed their mind and instead sent him back home. There’s so much work for @PoliceNG, @rrslagos767 to do in educating its officers.
“If they were really that determined to enforce the lockdown to the letter, they could have considered letting one of them accompany him to the hospital to establish the veracity of his claims.
“By their obduracy, the Police have cost this guy an extra day of confirming if he is indeed +ve or -ve. The most worrying of all his symptoms is that he says he’s experiencing “shortness of breath” and feels like he’s “running out of air”.
“Even if he turns out COVID-19-negative, shortness of breath could take his life at any moment. Meanwhile, laws are meant for man, not man for laws, aren’t they?”
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