COVID-19: Patient denies being positive, says no medication since her ordeal

• She Is Positive, Insists Delta Govt

One of the two COVID-19 patients in Delta State that was confirmed on Wednesday (names withheld), yesterday, cried out that she was not positive of the virus, maintaining that she was only suffering from cough and was diagnosed of pneumonia in 2004.
 
But in a swift reaction, the state Commissioner for Information, Mr. Charles Aniagwu, dismissed the claim, insisting that the lady actually tested positive for Coronavirus and the result was to be printed and sent to her yesterday. 
 
Aniagwu, who said the state government spent a lot of money to run the test at the Irrua Specialist Hospital in Edo State, also denied the allegations of poor treatment, stressing that the lady was being taken good care of, contrary to her claim.
 
He said: “The state government has no reason to keep her there if she was not COVID-19 positive, as it was costing government so much money to keep her.”
 
Meanwhile, the patient, while lamenting the poor living condition of the Warri isolation centre, where she was receiving treatment, also disclosed that she was yet to see the test result confirming her COVID-19 positive.
 
In an audio recording, she said: “I was called by the Delta State Commissioner for Health and I told him that with all due respect, I needed to see my test result and besides, there are procedures by which one can contact this virus and having being indoors. I am not a public person, though am a fashion designer. Who did I come in contact with when there is a lockdown?”
 
Speaking confidently on being negative for the virus, she said: “Based on the symptoms of Coronavirus, the person will have cough, running nose, fever, so and so forth, but right now, the only thing I have is just cough. I did not go out during the two-week lockdown; I was indoors all through.
 
“A day to the final day of the lockdown, before it was extended, that was the day I told my younger brother that having being indoors all through, I needed to stroll out and told him to take me on a ride and drop me in my friend’s house, and that was it.”

Confirming the authenticity of the recording, a male relation of the patient, said: “We are not really happy with things at the centre for now, as situation there is not friendly at all.”
 
While also doubting the COVID-19 status of his sister, her lamented what he described as the poor treatment of his sister, saying: “For somebody with a respiratory issue, they gave her cold water, but she demanded for hot water. So, we brought hot water in a flask for her, but they refused to take it from us; hence we had to go back with everything we came with.”