Comedian, Sydney Egere, popularly known as Sydney Talker, has accused the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) of denying him the coronavirus test even though he was showing symptoms of the disease.
The 24-year-old made the accusation in a post he shared across social media on Friday.
“Good afternoon everyone. I’m sharing my experience with private failed health care system, especially on its inability to respond to this COVID-19 epidemic. A week ago I came down with some symptoms similar to that of COVID-19. I tried the @NCDCgov hotlines several times for about 2 days before I finally got a response stating that I have not started showing all the symptoms. Plus I have no recent international travel history or contact with a confirmed COVID-19 patient so I couldn’t be attended to… A sample was eventually collected for testing after we insisted on not leaving without a test being carried out…” he wrote.
The NCDC responded to Sydney’s accusation in a statement shared on its official Twitter handle.
The statement read, “We received several messages & calls, over an Instagram video. The individual was said to be very sick & reported that NCDC did not respond. We have reached out to him and he said what he did was a skit. He is well Pls respect the call and message lines. Do not spread panic.”
