The Gombe State Task Force on COVID-19 has said that the protest by some patients in the State was just “emotional.”

The State Focal Officer on COVID-19 Pandemic Response, Dr. Mohammed Kwami, said this in a statement made available to reporters in Gombe on Wednesday.

A video went viral during the week showing some of the COVID-19 patients at the Kwadon isolation centre in Yamaltu-Deba Local Government Area of the State embark on a protest.

The patients claimed that they lack adequate care and also the committee’s inability to provide some of their basic needs.

But Kwami said the protest was not caused by neglect of the patients from the authorities but a misplaced emotional aggression that went out of hand.

He said the task force was responsive and proactive in its assignment.

He said: “Medical attention is being given to them with doctors and nurses, in-line with the protocols of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), and the task force will not allow self medication at the centre.

“It is therefore inaccurate for anybody to claim that patients are being poorly managed.”

According to Kwami, public health consideration outweighs personal interest in the prevention of the transmission of COVID-19.

Kwami explained the task force had been doing everything possible to meet the immediate needs of the patients at the isolation centre.

He said the protest was a manifestation of the prevailing socioeconomic and psychological challenges as well as the consequences of Coronavirus ravaging the land.

Kwami also noted that majority of the patients returned from Lagos, Abuja and Kano following the lockdown in those cities.

He pointed out that the patients found themselves in the State on agreement that they would go through screening and possible isolation for Coronavirus if they tested positive.

He wondered why some members of the community freely mingled with the patients during the protest, but assured that contact tracing had began in the area.