By David-Chyddy Eleke
The Anambra State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Vincent Okpala, has said that 29 persons consisting of health workers, relations and business partners of the Covid-19 index case in the state have been quarantined and awaiting testing.
Okpala, who spoke to journalists in Awka gave details of how the Covid-19 response team in the state searched for the index case from 8pm to 3am, after the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) contacted the government to reveal that a case has been registered in Anambra.
The commissioner said: “I went with the team to places I ordinarily would not go at that time of the night, and I knocked on a lot of doors to wake people up from sleep to ask about the individual.
“He left the hospital when he should not have left, and usually, while waiting for patient’s result we keep them in check, but this man eloped even before the result was out, and when I called the doctor managing him and he told me the man was not in the hospital, we had to go looking for him.
“Presently, the index case is being treated at an isolation centre, and he is receiving the best of treatment ever. He has every facility he needs and is also provided whatever he wants.
“Contact tracing is on vigorously, and we have 29 persons who are contacts of the index case, and they include medical personnel at the hospital where he was being previously managed, his relatives and business associates. Those traced are being closely monitored now.”
He said the hospital, where the case was previously treated, has been fumigated, adding that people should feel free to use the facility.
