“I was, at first, scared but I got inspired to brace up for COVID-19,” Ememobong Gabriel Udofa, a pharmacist discharged after testing negative to coronavirus, stated this on Sunday.
Udofa, one of the three coronavirus patients discharged from Ibom Specialty Hospital, Uyo, after their status had been confirmed negative by Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
Otobong Asuquo and Ekaete Udoafah, medical doctors, were the two others.
Before now, three other COVID-19 patients had been discharged after testing negative, remaining six at the isolation centre.
Udofa said “The treatment here had been topnotch. There is a difference between how I came in here and how I am today. I was well taken care of and I commend Governor Udom Emmanuel for his proactive stance against the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic and the medical team led by the Commissioner for Health, for the facilities put in place here. It helped in my speedy recovery.”
He said his symptoms started a week after the foreign-based medical mission left the state on March 13, when he started developing such symptoms as headache, lost of sense of taste and smell.
“It was on the 23rd of March that it dawn on me that I had symptoms of the COVID 19, my brother who is an ENT Surgeon told me it was COVID 19, I boiled chicken and I could not perceive its aroma and could not sense any taste. That was when I suspected that I might have contacted the disease.”
Speaking also, Asuquo said he knew the symptoms of the virus and had to isolate himself for 10 days before he reached out to the state COVID-19 team to come to his aid.
The medical doctor said he was happy to be discharged, and assured that he was going to remain resolute in carrying out his responsibility of saving lives.
He urged members of the public against ignoring the warnings on the dangers of the virus, as it was very contagious and dangerous.
The State Commissioner for Health, Dr Dominic Ukpong said that the state was not going to relent in ensuring that COVID 19 is minimized and contained.
Ukpong stated that work on the Grade Four laboratories to help in testing coronavirus is at advanced stage, maintaining that one would be sited in Uyo and the other one at the nearly completed Isolation Facility in Ituk Mbang, Uruan.
In company of the discharged from the isolation facility were the State Epidemiologist, Dr. Ntiense Umoette and a Respiratory Surgeon, Prof Etette Peters, among others.
