By IDONGESIT ASHAMERI, Uyo

The University of Uyo Health Center has been shut down indefinitely over an alleged case of COVID-19.

Activities of the student/staff clinic which has been running a skeletal services due to COVID-19 came to a halt on Monday over one of its patients who later tested positive to the virus.

One of the medical workers who spoke with our correspondent who visited the clinic on Monday said the centre was closed down to enable the management carry out a decontamination exercise, having unknowingly admitted a Covid-19 patient.

The worker who crave anonymity said “We were still running skeletal services to help people, especially the pregnant women and women on labour. But the recent experience has made the place unsafe for everyone, so we had to close down for proper decontamination.

“While on operation, we tried to ensure that no other person except the patients were allowed into the wards. And new mothers without complications were discharged few hours after delivery. But now we can no longer help people”. He said

Our correspondent reports that a pregnant woman on labour who arrived the health centre was turned back. A situation which got the woman and her husband to rush to a private home to have their baby.

An elderly woman, who also arrived at9.ambut was turned back lamented “I don’t know how to cope with other healthcare facilities. They understand my situation better, that is why I had to come alone, without any of my children. I just hope COVID-19 would not deny us access to basic healthcare”.

The Director of Information, University of Uyo, Mrs Blossom Okorie when contacted said the shut down was to allow for fumigation. She defended that the closure had nothing to do with COVID-19 as the management was simply carrying out a Federal government directive. (Daily Independent)