There was palpable among residents in Makurdi, the capital city of Benue State after a 17-year-old boy suspected to have developed symptoms of coronavirus was admitted to the University Teaching Hospital.

The apprehension became heightened with the news about the suspect filtered out in the social media late hours of Saturday.

It was gathered that the suspect had been isolated at the designated centre at the University Teaching Hospital in Makurdi.

But the authority of the Teaching Hospital on Sunday debunked the rumour, saying that there was no suspected case of coronavirus in the hospital.

According to the statement issued by the Chief Medical Director of the Teaching Hospital, Professor Telumun Swende, said that there was no suspected of the dreaded disease in the hospital at the moment.

He explained that a young man who had cough and cold but was agitated due to wrong interpretation actually presented himself at the hospital.

Parts of the statement read,

“Earlier today, (Saturday) a young man of about 17 years, who had cold and cough yesterday presented himself at our facility and informed the medical personnel on duty that he suspects that he has COVID-19.

“However, upon examination, our team of doctors discovered that he had no symptoms of COVID-19 case.

“Interaction with the patient revealed that he has not travelled out of Benue State for several years, and has almost zero percent chances of contracting the virus.

“It was discovered that he became unnecessarily agitated due to wrong interpretation of COVID-19 symptoms he had read and heard from the social media.

“He was promptly treated and allowed to go home. We wish to use this medium to appeal to social media bloggers and other users to be cautious of what they post on COVID-19, to avoid creating unnecessary panic.

We wish to assure all and sundry that there’s no suspected case of COVID 19 at BSUTH, Makurdi at the moment.”