Yemisi Izuora
Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq of Kwara State yesterday announced that 75 persons, including 28 staff of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, were receiving attention at the state isolation centre, Sobi Specialist Hospital, Ilorin.
This followed the confirmation on Monday by the National Centre for Disease Control that wife of UITH patient, Late Muhideen Obamomo, was positive for COVID-19.
The governor, during his live broadcast yesterday, said: “We received official report from the NCDC of samples earlier taken to the Ibadan test centre. The test confirmed that Kwara State now has two cases of COVID-19. The first is the wife of a man who recently returned from UK”. He said the second case was a diabetic patient who also had a travel history to the UK.
“He came into the country on March 18. He has since gone into self-isolation with his wife. Following reasonable suspicion, sample was taken from him and he has now been confirmed positive”, he said. The governor said the state Rapid Response Team of the medical advisory committee had so far got 75 persons who had contacts with the cases and the suspected case at UITH. He said the government was disappointed at the breach of trust that played out in the UITH case, saying “Without prejudice to the internal investigation by UITH, we demand immediate suspension of Professor Alakija Kazeem Salami and every other official of UITH whose professional misconducts brought us down this path pending the outcome of the ongoing probe.”
The Kwara State Committee on COVID-19 has also announced the total lockdown of Offa community begining from 6pm on Wednesday (tomorrow).
The State Deputy Governor, Mr. Kayode Alabi, stated this at press briefing held on Tuesday. He noted that the measure is to avoid the spread of COVID-19 disease in the state.