Bed Space Crisis: NCDC Reviews Policy On Discharge Of COVID-19 Patients
Posted by FN Editor | 4 years ago | 1,122 times
Following challenges of bed space capacity, the Federal Government has reviewed the policy guidelines on the discharge of persons infected with coronavirus (COVID-19) after they have tested negative twice consecutively to only once before they are certified of recovery from the disease.
Disclosing this on Thursday, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), said that the number of tests conducted on persons infected with COVID-19 before certification of recovery from the infection has been reduced to one test.
Ihekweazu, who revealed this during a broadcast, explained that recovered COVID-19 patients were now discharged from the isolation centres after their first negative test.
“So, the discharge criterion at the moment is a single negative test in Nigeria,” the NCDC boss revealed.
He said: “We used to do two negative tests, 48 hours apart, but because of challenges of bed space capacity, we reduced that to a single negative test, then discharge the patient to another one week of home isolation – that’s the policy at the moment.”
Ihekweazu also debunked report that the NCDC had refused to release some patients from its isolation facility after they recovered from the disease.
The NCDC boss also refuted the allegations that he directed that COVID-19 patients should not be taken to isolation centres if they do not show symptoms of the disease.
According to Ihekweazu, the agency does not manage any patient, but supports clinicians in various states with guidelines.
He stressed that decisions on the management of COVID-19 cases were left for the state authorities to take.
On how long infected patients stay at isolation centres, he said: “The average duration of hospitalisation that we have found has been 10 to 11 days, although some have said that they have been discharged on the fourth day (a few people).”
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