COVID-19: Ekiti begins random testing of residents

To avert the community spread of the dreadful COVID-19 pandemic, the Ekiti state government would next week begin random testing of residents across the state.

The state government also restated its commitment not to allow security agencies enforcing the lockdown to infringe on the rights of suspected offenders in the state.

Commissioner for Health, Dr. Mojisola Yaya-Kolade spoke in Ado Ekiti, on Wednesday, while giving updates on the COVID-19 situation in the state.

The commissioner added that all the claims by institutions that they have produced herbal cure for COVID-19 must be scrutinised and made to pass through medical screening before approval.

She said the random testing , which will be done across the 16 local government areas and which must be undertaken in view of the geometric increase in number of COVID-19 victims, will not be done by coercion, but through sensitisation and volition .

Yaya-Kolade revealed that the state would soon set up a molecular laboratory to boost the state’s testing capacity, so that many people can know their status and be aware of their safety.

The commissioner stated that the state presently has only five patients in isolation, who she said are stable, responding to treatment and asymptomatic.

“We are still tracing some contacts and we are expecting our molecular laboratory soon, just as we are still preaching prevention and containment through usage of masks, and keeping to personal hygiene and social financing.

“We will begin random testing next week to stop community spread. The state is doing a lot of infection prevention training for our health workers to make our people safe.

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“We are also thinking about complying with the new NCDC regulation that you can discharge after the first negative test, if you are overburdened will patients. But, we are going to be cautious in applying this.

“Those coming through the borders should stay away. They are not wanted here because many of the cases we have had were brought from outside,” she declared.

Speaking further on the porous border, the Director General, Office of Strategic Transformation and Delivery, Prof Bolaji Aluko, said the measure becomes the best alternative because the scourge was brought into the state by outsiders.

“Some of them came from Katsina, Lagos and Kano states, which had made it imperative for us to secure our borders and make us safe.

“We are getting calls that some people are coming from the north, but let our informants provide their names, so that they can be easily traced for interrogation,” he pleaded.

Commissioner for Environment, Gbenga Agbeyo, said the state has put up proper machinery to arrest and prosecute violators of the lockdown, particularly those flouting the closure of major markets and border areas.

Agbeyo said another round of fumigation will begin today (Thursday) in the state capital before proceeding to the remaining 15 local governments to curtail the spread of coronavirus.