Confusion In Cross River State As Samples Of A Nurse Who Died Of Suspected Covid19 Complications Tests Negative
"In two months of running this series, Cross River is the first state where a tested sample was declared -ve and experts, shell-shocked, were wondering: “How on earth is that so? That’s got to be +ve!”
This is because there are many questions about the speed, timing, storage and submission of samples.
#fisayoscovid19series
As you may already know, Mrs M. T. O., a nurse working at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH), died of SUSPECTED COVID-19 symptoms last week.Although ill, the nurse had been very stable and was being managed for what looked like malaria. Then all of a sudden, 48 hours before her death, she developed very acute, rapid respiratory tract symptoms such as cough, fever and difficulty in breathing. She was sent to the hospital’s isolation centre and her samples were collected on Wednesday. By the time the result returned –ve on Thursday, she’d died.
Many who saw the late nurse’s chest x-ray are convinced it was a “classical COVID-19 x-ray”. It wasn’t really a case of COVID-19 “suspicion” but of such “conviction” that medical experts within and outside Cross River said if a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test was done and it turned out negative, then it must be repeated!
It’s not just that the strength of the sensitivity of that x-ray was so high; this wasn’t the first such occurrence. Of the eight samples tested in Cross River so far, three have had x-rays of this nature. And these were a special breed of x-rays that weren’t seen until now. The sudden appearance of these unique x-rays shows so clearly that there’s something amiss.
Those who have followed this series for a while will recall my 10-tweet thread of May 1 on the peculiar chest x-rays that suggested the strange deaths being covered up in Kano were COVID-19-related. The authorities would later confirm these deaths as caused by COVID-19.
Back to Cross River, lots of questions need to be answered if the Ben Ayade government must convince us all that the state is indeed COVID-19-free:
1. Seven of the eight samples collected so far are from the UCTH. What about the other hospitals in Calabar and the rest of the 18 LGAs of the state? Does it mean that in a state of 4 million people, not more than one person met the COVID-19 case definition outside UCTH in three months?
2. Why does it ALWAYS take the Cross River State epidemiologist so long to turn up when informed of the need for sample collection for a possible Coronavirus case? Half of the samples were collected post-mortem because of delayed response. Why is this delay a pattern?
3. Why is there, similarly, a pattern of delayed sample submission? There is no sample that was collected in Cross River and sent for testing within 24 hours. Not one. All the samples spent the night in Calabar; all stayed a minimum of 24 hours in the state. Why? The Abakaliki lab, where the last sample was sent to, is only three hours away. Even a sample collected at 1pm should get there that same day.
4. Nobody knows anything about the storage of collected samples or what exactly is being sent or the viability of the samples. Why is sample collection and submission for testing shrouded in such first-class secrecy?
5. Why is there an increase in deaths from COVID-19-like symptoms? It doesn’t matter that they’re in aliquots, unlike what was witnessed in Kano. If COVID-19-like deaths are occurring but they’re not confirmed to be COVID-induced, then what’s the cause of the deaths? We need to know.
6. Why are there very classical COVID-19-like chest x-rays, even if the results are coming back negative? These images are quite novel, so if they aren’t from COVID-19, what’re they from?Until these questions have all been answered by the state government, that claim of zero COVID-19 case in Cross River will receive little acclaim beyond the State House and the camps of Governor Ayade’s loyalists".
This is serious and really confusing.... Wouldn't you agree?
Be it as it may, all Cross River State residents have to take precautionary measures.
Thanks for reading.
Stay safe
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