Why we can’t force COVID-19 patients to go to hospital —NCDC

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said on Monday it was the responsibility of states to evacuate COVID-19 patients to medical facilities for treatment.

The Director-General of NCDC, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, who stated this during the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 briefing in Abuja, added that the agency could not forcefully take a patient to the hospital because it was not a law enforcement agency.

He said: “Every state has a responsibility for evacuation; as we start increasing the inclusion of the private sector in care, you would find that more people would start evacuating patients with the private sector services. So, there is a whole spectrum of possibilities that could have happened.

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“What we don’t do as health workers is to use force to evacuate patients to provide them care. That would be a very unusual reaction. We are not law enforcement and we are not trained in law enforcement.

“We never use force to evacuate patients; If we have difficulty and there are specific circumstances because of public health reasons why an evacuation has to happen, we would invite our friends in the (security) services to support us in that act.”

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