Coronavirus Pandemic
THE Kwara State Government on Wednesday in Ilorin explained the reason behind the sudden increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in the state.
Rafiu Ajakaye Spokesman of the Technical Committee on COVID-19 gave the explanation in a statement.
He said it was due to deliberate effort of the committee to contact-trace and test all persons and health workers that had contact with two Coronavirus positive persons that recently sneaked into the state.
“They were already in isolation before the test result as they had long been identified as “persons of interest” on account of their close contact with a pregnant woman who sneaked in from Zamfara and later tested positive.
“The woman was briefly treated at the Ilorin General Hospital and later at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital where she underwent an operation and later tested positive,’’ he said.
Ajakaye noted that the incident led to contact tracing and testing of no fewer than 180 persons.
“Various precautionary measures have since been taken at the two hospitals, including disinfection of relevant wards, relocation of other patients to some other wards and testing of all the contacts.
”There is also a renewed emphasis on the need for healthcare workers to treat every patient as a potential COVID-19 case.
“For the record, the rise in the cases was a result of the government’s proactiveness in rounding up all contacts and testing all of them.
“Insinuations about the lack of PPEs or shortage of same are unfounded and reckless,” he explained.
He added that 23 new cases recorded included that of a contact of a deceased person whose corpse was brought into Kwara from neighbouring Ekiti State.
“The government has, therefore, despatched a Rapid Response Team to begin an aggressive contact tracing of the case in the affected community for another round of tests.
“So far, 75 per cent of our cases were imported. There is no record of community spread yet in Kwara.
“While we commend the security agencies for what they are doing, we urge them to do much more to secure our borders and prevent influx of people into the state.
“The 23 new cases, as many before now, were a backlash from porous borders.
“In times of pandemic and other emergencies, it is a crime for anyone or entity to undermine a system put in place to protect the people.
“The government, therefore, warns that any action that purports to kill the morale of our health workers and those in the frontline of this national emergency will not be tolerated,” the statement said.
It called on the Federal Government to expedite action on setting up of at least a COVID-19 test centre in the state to strengthen the capacity to test more samples while urging people to come up for voluntary testing. (NAN)
– Jun. 3, 2020 @ 15:12 GMT |
Tags: Kwara explains rise in COVID-19 cases restates need for test centre
