COVID-19: Finally, Susan Okpe Discharged

COVID-19: Finally, Susan Okpe Discharged

After spending 58 days in isolation, Susan Idoko Okpe, the Benue COVID-19 index case, has finally been discharged.

The 58-year-old Nigerian-British had challenged the result of the test declaring her a COVID-19 patient.

Idoko-Okpe, who arrived in Nigeria from the United Kingdom on March 22, protested that a positive COVID-19 test result, which led to her being taken to the Benue State Isolation Centre in Makurdi on March 27 and subsequently to the National Hospital in Abuja, did not belong to her.

Her daughter who shared the news on social media said her mother was released on Wednesday evening, May 20.

Okpe had been in a running battle with the Federal government and the NCDC shortly after she was reported to have tested positive for the novel Coronavirus and moved into an isolation center, first in Benue, and then in Abuja. All along, she had maintained that wasn’t ill.

In a telephone conversation made available to The PUNCH, Idoko-Okpe was heard confirming to a lady that she had been released.

She said health officials gave her the result of the latest test as demanded and insisted she was positive for COVID-19.

The index case said she later called the Chief Medical Director, who told her that she was never “a prisoner” and that she was free to go.

Idoko-Okpe, who said she would not disclose her current location yet, expressed happiness over her release.

She said she contemplated rolling on the floor to record a video.

“God has been good to me. I went through a lot,” she said.