Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq of Kwara State, on Wednesday, ordered the sack of a government driver who gave attention to a man who was evacuated in a COVID-19 ambulance in Ilorin.
Also, some ranked officeholders of the state Ministry of Health are to be queried on the order of the governor for declining to act with necessary caution in the management of the incident recorded in video footage which went viral.
It was gathered that the occurrence recorded along Taiwo Road in Ilorin the State capital, exposed the unprofessional handling of the man who was put on a stretcher and conveyed with the COVID-19 ambulance without the driver wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) but only with hand gloves.
A statement by the spokesman of the governor, Rafiu Ajakaye in Ilorin Wednesday night, said “the governor totally condemns the shoddy handling of the gentleman who was clearly going through a hard time.
“He has directed that the driver be fired immediately. As the investigation revealed, the driver failed to heed clear directives not to take any action until the Rapid Response Team, RRT, arrives at the scene.
“He evacuated the gentleman with the help of members of the public without waiting for the arrival of the RRT.”
According to the statement, the governor further directed that members of the RRT be queried, while other steps are being taken to ensure the incident does not repeat itself.
“Involving just anybody in the evacuation of a suspected case, as was seen in the footage, was a clear and dangerous violation of Covid-19 safety protocols.
“The government equally finds it quite distasteful and unacceptable that the driver, who had long been involved in such operations made unethical comments to somebody in distress.
“That incident was avoidable and we sincerely apologize to the gentleman and the people of Kwara state for the embarrassing development, we assure them this will not happen again,” the statement added.
Meanwhile, confirmed COVID-19 cases in the State have increased to 53 following the confirmation of nine new more cases on Wednesday.
COVID-19 Kwara update revealed that 40 active cases have been recorded, while 12 patients have now been discharged, with 682 negative tests.
The number of pending tests has risen to 75, with a total of 810 tests done and only one death recorded.
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