COVID-19: Ekiti records 4 new cases

Four fresh cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in Ekiti, the Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr Mojisola Yaya-Kolade, has said.

The commissioner, who made this known at a media briefing by members of the State COVID-19 Task Force, said that the new cases included three males and one female.

According to her, the new victims ” sneaked” into the state from Lagos, Katsina and Oyo states in defiance of the current lockdown in the state.

Yaya-Kolade said though the state had discharged some patients from its isolation centre, three of the four new cases were those that had been quarantined having arrived the state from areas considered as epicentre of COVID-19.

“We have four new cases now. One of the cases is an old man that has been isolated in one of our tertiary health institutions for a while. He is an elderly person who is in a critical condition.

“Others include a 35-year-old female from Katsina and 32-year-old male from Ibadan, while the third one is a 38-year-old male from Lagos, who all sneaked into Ekiti during the lockdown

“But despite all these, there is no community spread because they all came from outside.

“We therefore beg our people to always alert us when new people come into town because this has been working and assisting us in our efforts to curb the virus.

“We are warning again that nobody should come to Ekiti now, it is an Executive Order given by the governor to the effect that nobody should come at this precarious time.

“It constitutes financial burden to Ekiti for victims of COVID-19 to come to our state from other states for treatment,” the commissioner said.

Yaya-Kolade added that government had trained a total of 80 civil servants on how to test people using infra red thermometer.

She also disclosed that a total of 234 blood samples had been taken and tested since the outbreak of the disease, saying more would be done to protect the state.

The commissioner also said the government had set up a molecular laboratory within the premises of the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti, adding that this would be inaugurated soon.

Also speaking, Prof. Bolaji Aluko, the Coordinator of the taskforce and Director-General, Office of Transformation, Strategy and Delivery, said the state had so far received over N631 million in donations.

“We have received the sum of N631.08 million from 535 contributors, and the breakdown include 231 donors and 234 political appointees.

“About 50 private organisations also donated food items and other consumables to fight this scourge by way of cushioning the effect of the lockdown on the people,” he said.