Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu said the state has enough facilities and medical capacity to take care of about 150 to 170 coronavirus patients if the need arises.
The governor stated this during a press briefing with the newsmen in Governors lodge Aba, Abia State.
He revealed that as the moment, the State has 5 new confirmed cases, while noting that one of the 2 old cases has recovered and tested negative twice.
“Recall that we had 2 index cases which we have been managing since the past 3 weeks or so and we are happy to announce that one of the index cases tested negative twice and has since been discharged”, Ikpeazu told press men.
According to the Governor, the total number of active cases in Abia State as at this afternoon (18, May 2020), is 6.
“Of the five new cases, incidentally, 3 of them are recent returnees from Lagos while the other 2 are currently asymptomatic and have no recent travel history,” Mr. Ikpeazu said, adding that …..“The circumstances of these cases have brought to the fore the need for us to re-emphasize total closure of our inter-state borders and commitment by every person, especially those that were assigned the duty of manning the borders”.
He said; “The war against COVID-19 is a war that has tasked everybody to show leadership at all levels. This is not the business of government alone. It concerns every one of us.
“Every Abian and, indeed, every Nigerian should show leadership at the family level, at the community level, at the church level and, indeed, at all levels. Because it is only when we take responsibility that we all can put our acts together and win this war.
“We have asked our medical rapid response team to move into the affected local governments and locations to start aggressive contact tracing. This will take us from Ofeme through Afugiri into Olokoro and we want residents in these communities, especially those that have come in contact with these cases, to come forward and make the exercise a little easier for us.
“We will reach each and every person that has come in contact with these patients and we will take samples and ensure they are tested for us to know exactly where we are in this task against coronavirus.
“I want to once again say that we are not deterred by these results because already we have enough facilities and medical capacity to take care of the cases,” Governor Ikpeazu stated.
