It was a piece of cheery news in Abeokuta, Ogun state capital on Thursday night as the State Government declared that three more patients were confirmed negative of Coronavirus and therefore discharged to reunite with their loved ones, having spent some days at the state-owned isolation centre.
The confirmation and discharge of three more patients from the isolation centre brought the total number of discharged patients to six out of the nine patients of Coronavirus pandemic earlier confirmed positive by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
Speaking at the Press Conference held at the State Government Secretariat at Oke-Mosan in Abeokuta on Thursday, Tomi Coker, Commissioner for Health, noted that more improved efforts had been made by State Government to ensure that clinical diagnosis and treatment of suspected and confirmed cases of Coronavirus are better and swiftly responded to in order to ensure that Ogun and Nigeria are given clean bill of health as regards COVID-19.
She said, “From the 28th February 2020, when Nigeria recorded its index case in Ogun state of a 44-year-old Italian who came for an official duty in Nigeria, the state currently has 9 positive cases.
“Today, I have good news. In the last 24 hours, three individuals have been given a clean bill of health in the last 24 hours and discharged from one of our isolation centres to join their families and resume their normal life, thus bringing the total number of discharged individuals to 6.
“Thus, we have only 3 active cases and they are being treated by our doctors and other healthcare workers in one of our Isolation and Treatment Centres.
“In addition, so far, we have identified 210 persons who had contacts with the positive cases, out of which 110 underwent the required 14 days quarantine period. Only 2 of this number tested positive, the remaining 108 tested negative on completion of the quarantine period.
“100 others are however are still observing the quarantine period and are being observed and monitored by our specialist doctors and other healthcare workers.
“As earlier announced by His Excellency, Prince Dapo Abiodun, the first fully state-funded Molecular Lab in the country by Ogun State has been delivered and installed. We are only awaiting the accreditation of the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) for it to commence full operation.
“This will significantly boost the efforts of the state to test individuals with suspected symptoms. We are also awaiting delivery of another Molecular Lab on Monday
“Furthermore, the State has finalized the installation of Mobile Testing Booths to be deployed across the state, particularly around the vulnerable areas such as our communities bordering Lagos to stem community transmission into Ogun State. With the above measures in place, we should be able to have a one-day return of test results for anyone suspected of having COVID-19 symptoms in the State.
“We thank God, Ogun State has been able to manage the pandemic effectively so far and surpassed the global average for tested cases and transmission. The global average is 1 positive case to 3 new infections. In our case, it is 1 positive case to 1 new infection.”
