Love at isolation centre: Discharged patient ignores father, goes home with soldier

There was a mild drama at the Oyo state Infectious Disease Centre on Saturday when a young woman refused to follow her father home after she was discharged from the isolation centre.

The graduate of statistics from a school in the state was among the 20 people discharged from the centre after they were treated for COVID-19.

When TheCable visited the isolation centre, which is located in Olodo area of Ibadan, relatives of those who were to be discharged were outside the gate waiting anxiously for their loved ones.

An official of the centre, who preferred anonymity, told TheCable that the patients were allowed to go home after testing negative for the coronavirus.

“They were here for different duration of time. Some of them had spent more than four weeks at the centre receiving treatment. They were discharged after our medical team confirmed that they had tested negative for the virus,” he said.

Among those waiting for their loved ones was a pastor who is the father of the young woman.

He told TheCable that his daughter began exhibiting a wayward attitude after graduating from school.

“She is my second child but after her graduation from the school of statistics, she refused to come home. I only got to know that she had been isolated at the centre through a relative she confided in. I am a man of God and I will continue to pray for her,” he said.

The drama began after the young woman opted to follow a soldier who came to pick her with a motorcycle.

The father approached the soldier but after about five minutes of discussion, the lady was taken away on the motorcycle while her father left the centre in annoyance.

TheCable gathered that the soldier was admitted to the isolation centre, but got discharged after recovering from the disease.

“The soldier the girl followed home was one of the three soldiers at the isolation centre when the girl was on admission,” a discharged patient who did not want to be named told TheCable.

“Before the soldier was discharged, he and the girl were very close. They mingled together.”

Among those discharged were aged men and women, and a student of the University of Ibadan.

Some of the discharged patients told TheCable that they were happy to reunite with their families after receiving a clean bill of health.