It has been reported that patients of COVID-19 are no longer required to test negative before they are being discharged.
This report was disclosed at the daily Presidential Task Force Briefing on COVID-19 on Thursday by the Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Chikwe Ihekweazu.
He said that COVID-19 patients can be free 14 days after the first positive result
The report noted that symptomatic patients would be discharged 10 days after symptom onset, plus at least 3 days without symptoms but if a patients symptom lasts for long, they will wait longer as they continue to provide medical support.
Testing negative to COVID-19 twice was the requirement for discharge at the initial stage of the virus in Nigeria
Chikwe Ihekweazu later said the agency had switched to testing COVID-19 patients only once as against its earlier stance on double testing before discharge owing to the fact that they wish to decongest some isolation centres in the country.
It is noteworthy that COVID-19 patients may be discharged earlier than their required treatment and isolation period, even though they are still positive, according to Mr Ihekweazu.
However, he added that discharged COVID-19 patients should continue self-isolating at home one week after their discharge and that at that point in time they no longer need clinical intervention.
Isolation centres across the country have become overwhelmed by the number of persons requiring institutional isolation and treatment.
According to him, Nigeria lacked enough bed spaces to accommodate COVID-19 patients in isolation centres across states. Owing to this the federal government is considering the option of home-care treatment for COVID-19 patients.
Osagie Ehanire, Minister of Health, said schools and hotels may be used as isolation centres for COVID-19 patients if the need arises at the daily PTF briefing
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