By Victor Ogunje
The Ekiti State Government has said that two children under the age of 10 are among the four newly discovered Covid-19 patients in the state.
The state government also said that it has not returned the 1,800 bags of rice alleged to have been adulterated and became inedible to the federal government contrary to insinuation in some quarters.
The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Saturday discovered four new index cases in Ekiti, who had contact with the 45-year-old doctor that contracted the disease through the only deceased patient in the state.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr Mojisola Yaya-Kolade, spoke in Ado Ekiti on Monday when the task force on Covid 19 was giving an update on the pandemic.
The commissioner said: “In the four new cases, there were two children of ages 10 and nine who must have contacted it through the 45-year-old doctor and only active case before the new cases.
“They are all in isolation centre. They are responding, doing well, stable and in high spirit.
“With this new development, we have 58 contacts to trace and we have started doing that. Blood samples have been taken and results are being awaited while the contact tracing also continues.”
Yaya-Kolade clarified that Ekiti doesn’t have community spread of Covid-19, saying: “This is because we knew where the contacts came from.”
The Coordinator of the Covid-19 Task Force and Director General, Office of Strategic Transformation and Delivery, Prof. Bolaji Aluko, stated that the 1,800 bags of rice donated to Ekiti by the federal government would be sorted to be able to separate the expired from consumable ones.
“We have not rejected or returned any rice to FG. The state will do sorting and separate the bad ones out of the consignment,” he clarified.
Aluko added that the government has begun the tracking of commuters who forcefully entered the state with a view to quarantine them, and urged residents in border towns to give information that can help in apprehending those crossing into the state illegally.
“Quarantine points have been provided in all the 16 local governments. To also demonstrate our seriousness, some pastors holding nocturnal church processions had been arrested and made to face the magistrate’s courts,” he said.
According to him, the state will continue to distribute food supplements and other protective materials to citizens to help curb the menace.
