The Centre for Information Technology and Development, CITAD has commended Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Abdukadir Muhd over the total lockdown of 3 Local Government Areas in the Northern part of the state in bid to curtail the spread of Coronavirus.

The commendation was contained in a statement made available to Newsmen in Bauchi on Tuesday by its Acting Programme Coordinator, Isah Garba Azare.

” We appreciate some of the measures taken by Bauchi state Government in its fight against the COVID19 Pandemic in the state, especially, the announcement of total lockdown in some local governments of the state that were initially neglected and the and the establishment of 7 sub-committees that will help the main committee in tracing contacts of the people who tested positive for testing and necessary follow up actions.

We note in particular, the sealing of Gida Duba Housing Estate where a tested positive of Covid – 19 patient died that necessitated the tracing of his contacts of which three of them returned positive. Since then more samples have been taken and results are being awaited”.

Mr Azare also commended the state for stepping forward in reducing the price of major commodities.

” The meeting of the state government with the traders union in the state which led to the reduction the price of some essential commodities is also another step worthy of commendations”.

The Acting Programme Coordinator expressed concern over the sanitary conditions of some isolation centres in the state.

” With respect to the isolation centres of Baraya and Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Teaching Hospital, we observed: People who are suspect cases, waiting for their results and mix with confirmed cases in an environment where social distancing is not possible thus creating the situation in which even when the results of the suspects turn out negative, they might have become infected by the virus during the their stay In the isolation centres, patients are not enlightened even though many of the suspected cases in the centre including those tested positive still don’t believe that the pandemic is real. Sanitary state of the centre is extremely poor as neither sanitizer nor soap is provided throughout the centre not even bathing soap .

Toilet paper and Disinfectants are not available for the COVID 19 patients residing at Bayara General Hospital Isolation Centre, Bauchi”.

Speaking on the attitude of health workers in isolation he admitted that ” Attitude of healthcare personnel in the two isolation centres is poor and hostile to patients, leading to misunderstanding and even a protest at Bayera on due to lack of drinking water on Monday”.

The statement further said ” Insufficient drugs that will help those in isolations in aliments that are not related to COVID 19 and may likely affect the patients during their stay at the centres”.

Mr Azare added that ” There is still acute shortage of preventive materials such as sanitizers, face masks, PPE’s .
The frequent death is still occurring in some parts of the state and social distance and other professional burial guidelines are not observe.

Insufficient sanitizers and other related materials for the use of the patients.
Poor patient-workers relationship as a result of the actions and attitude of some of the health workers.

Sample testing takes a long time of about 5 days before the result is out, leaving suspect in a state o trauma”.

The centre recommend that ” The state government should as a matter of urgency address the filthy conditions of the isolation centres In the state and provide the necessary materials that will prevent other infections to patients in the isolation centres.
The state the government should work with the Presidential Task Force against COVID 19 to get enough PPEs for the health workers managing the centres and other hospitals in the state.
Government should enlighten both patients and the general public as even patients are unable to understand why they are being held.
The state the government should engage in massive testing and contact tracing in all the local governments in the state

There is a need for improved relationship between the patients and the health workers in the Isolation Centres.

For the total lockdown to work effectively and provide the needed result there is a need for inclusive and transparent palliative distribution”.