By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

The city of Nnewi, the industrial hub of Anambra State, was on Saturday, thrown into panic following the rumour of a London returnee medical doctor at Nnamdi Azikiwe Teaching Hospital (NAUTH).

The doctor, who is said to be a member of staff of the Teaching Hospital, was said to have travelled and returned from the UK, one of the countries known to have been largely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

But the Chief Medical Director of the health institution, Prof. Anthony Igwegbe, doused the fears, saying that the returnee doctor has tested negative to the virus.

He said: “One of my resident doctors returned from London. His blood sample was taken to Iruua Specialist Hospital, Edo State, for test, even when he was not manifesting any symptom of the deadly virus.

“We have received the result and it is negative. No one is admitted here based on the prevalent Covid-19. No suspected case so far. We can quarantine people who are really suspects.

“We don’t have to quarantine someone who is not a suspect; otherwise 1,000 kits won’t be enough for us here, even though we have a well-equipped isolation centre.”

Igwegbe explained that the doctor was already in self-isolation before the result came out, adding that the hospital had not recorded any case of Covid-19 since the emergence of the pandemic.