Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Ondo state on Saturday said the confirmed index case recorded in the state on Friday has little or no expansion potential.
The governor, however, ruled out taking the Coronavirus patients in the state to Lagos State for treatment.
According to him, the state has the capacity to treat the patient who is a military officer that just returned from India about two weeks ago on an assignment without taking him to Lagos State for any further treatment.
Governor Akeredolu, who spoke during a state broadcast, said contact tracing for the suspected contacts of the patient had begun.
The governor maintained that he had discussed with the Brigade Commander of the 32 Artillery Brigade, Akure, explaining that on his (patient’s) arrival in the state, the military officer placed himself on isolation until he developed symptoms which turned out to be a positive case after test.
“When you trace the history of the officer, you will know that it leads us to little or no potential expansion. He came and put himself in isolation, The Brigade Commander spoke with me and confirmed this to me. All we have to do to prevent the spread of the virus has been done with this man in self isolation.
“I want to talk to our people and allay their fears; there is no need to panic. This has been contained within a room. Remember I took the lead in subjecting myself to test because I felt I had been out of the state,” he said.
While rolling out the efforts put in place by his administration to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, Governor Akeredolu said: “We have strengthened our precautionary measures. We closed our schools and sent our children home; we suspended public gatherings and advised against religious gatherings.
“We have scaled down the activities in our Government House and Secretariat and we have asked the civil servants from level 1-12 to stay at home. We have also closed our markets.
“After that, we have now gone ahead to fumigate our markets and motor parks. We have also directed a lockdown of our borders when we found out that a number of people from neighbouring states were moving in,” the governor recounted.
He announced that the state had also decided to assist its students by having special educational broadcasts. The state had also set up special relief distribution and respond fund committees, he said.
He, therefore, noted that the committee on relief distribution would operate, purchase and share foodstuffs through the local government areas.
The governor also said that the people must not be too anxious and should continue to practise social distancing and cleanliness by washing their hands with water and soap always.
