The Edo State Government, as part of efforts to contain the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, has ramped up ongoing screening and testing exercise across the state’s 18 Local Government Areas (LGAs), screening over 104,186 persons, testing about 704 residents and contact tracing over 689 others who have had various degrees of contacts with confirmed cases.
Commissioner for Health, Dr Patrick Okundia, who disclosed this to journalists in Benin City, also announced the discharge of one more COVID-19 patient, who has tested negative twice for the virus and cleared from the state’s isolation centres.
According to him, the new discharge brings the number of patients successfully managed and discharged from the state’s isolation facilities to 13.
Okundia, however, reassured that the remaining cases that are yet to be discharged are on active treatment at various isolation centres in the state and are responding well to treatment.
The commissioner said, “The Edo State Government has continued to take serious steps to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, as the health and wellbeing of all Edo residents remain a top priority for this government. As part of this ramped-up measures, we have embarked on massive screening and testing of residents to get a clearer picture of the spread of the virus in order to enhance our efforts and strategies at containing the pandemic.
“We have set up over 18 screening centres across the state, with five additional ones at borders with Delta, Ondo and Kogi States and another eight (8) mobile screening centres moving around wards in local governments to screen and collect samples that fit the case definition for testing. With the model, the state government screens at least 10,000 people daily and collects at least 20 samples for testing.”
Okundia continued, “So far, we have screened over 104,186 and tested over 704 persons in the state and have continued to scale up as we aggressively push to screen a minimum of 500,000 people and test about 5,000 individuals in the next few weeks.
“The government advises that everyone should get screened at the numerous screening centres across the state to complement the government’s efforts to contain the pandemic”
“You are also charged to avoid large gatherings and comply with all government directives to keep you safe and healthy. Stay at home and observe all precautionary measures against the spread of the disease, including regular handwashing with soap under running water and the use alcohol-based hand sanitisers. Cover your mouth and nose properly when sneezing and/or coughing,” he added.
