Coronavirus: Wanted man in Abia taken to isolation facility — Official

A suspected COVID-19 case who was declared wanted by the Abia State government has been taken into an isolation facility in the state, the government said Saturday.

The man is said to have been avoiding health officials after he called the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to report that he had contact with a confirmed case in Akwa Ibom and that he was showing symptoms of the new coronavirus.

The Abia government on Friday declared him wanted.

“Our team swung into action and called the number forwarded, took notes and asked the individual to isolate himself pending our arrival to take samples for testing,” the Commissioner for Information in Abia state, John Kalu, said in a statement.

Mr Kalu is also the secretary of the state’s inter-ministerial committee on COVID-19.

“On arrival at the given location, he disappeared and was later to confess that he saw the ambulance and the fully kitted RR-team, lost courage, detested the possibility of being locked down and decided to switch off his phone and disappear into thin air.”

Mr Kalu said health officials eventually got the man with the assistance of security agents. His sample has been collected for testing and he is cooperating with the authorities, the commissioner said.

There is no confirmed case of the coronavirus in Abia State which has been in the news lately because of deadly clashes between some residents and security officials enforcing lockdown in the state.