NCDC reached 3rd Covid-19 patient on Twitter

The third person who tested positive for coronavirus had to turn to Twitter to reach public health officials for testing, it has emerged.

The federal health ministry in a statement Tuesday said the patient in her 30s returned from the UK on March 13, started a 14-day self isolation and called the NCDC toll free line after she developed a fever and cough on March 16.

But in a tweet late Tuesday, NCDC said it DM’ed a Twitter user who “mentioned his friend who returned from UK had runny nose but could not reach authorities for testing.

“Within 12 hours of communication with us via DM, a sample was collected,” it added.

“Following lab confirmation last night, she was admitted to IDH, Yaba Given that the case is asymptomatic, she is being monitored according to case management guidelines.”

It said it was in touch with Lagos state health ministry to ensure the patient gets appropriate care and looked forward to her recovery.

Nigerians on social media reacted differently.

A throwback to the start of the thread.

A friend that came in from one of the high risk countries, showing flu symptoms have been trying to get a test done since Friday, called all the hotlines and there’s still nothing. I have just exchanged DMs with the @NCDCgov and they have promised to act on it. We wait.

— Ayobami (@dondekojo) March 15, 2020

NCDC’s tweet on Tuesday.

Following lab confirmation last night, she was admitted to IDH, Yaba

Given that the case is asymptomatic, she is being monitored according to case management guidelines. We are in touch with @LSMOH to ensure she gets appropriate care

We look forward to her quick recovery.

— NCDC (@NCDCgov) March 17, 2020

Some responses were sceptical and savage

Mentioned ko, mentioned ni. He said he’d been trying to reach out to you people and you didn’t answer him. Twitter was a last resort. If he didn’t have retweets would you have reached out?

— ち (@ehmayeka) March 17, 2020

And then the rise of doubts.

This shows that whatever measures you have in place at the airport is not 100% effective. Imagine if the friend did not get in touch and she started having contact with large number of pple. Don’t you think it’s wise to restrict int ✈️ into the country now??

— Akintunde (@dejiakintunde) March 17, 2020