Coronavirus: We're leaving no stone unturned, 28 persons identified, quarantined

Gov. Dapo Abiodun

The governor of Ogun State, Dapo Abiodun says the State is leaving no stone unturned in tracking those who had contact with the index coronavirus case.

According to the governor who confirmed the latest development to journalists, the company where the Italian had visited in Ewekoro has been shut down, while two isolation centres have been identified and a lot of items have been distributed all the way to our local government and our primary health care centres; gloves, masks and protective equipment.

He also noted that at least 28 persons have been identified and quarantined in Ogun State after coming in contact with Nigeria’s first Coronavirus patient.

“They are looking at interviewing these 28 people to know who they have been in contact with so that they can ensure these other people are quarantined,” he stated.

The patient, an Italian citizen who works in Nigeria and just returned from Milan, Italy on the 25th of February 2020, was confirmed to have the COVID-19 virus by the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, on Friday.

“We are quite worried that even from the time the sample is sent to the lab, it will take about 4 to 8 hours for the feedback; either positive or negative and the transit time from Ogun to Lagos state could be anywhere between 2 to 4 hours so that’s about 12 hours”.

“We have decided that the isolation unit we have set up at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital is temporal; I have been in touch with Ministers of health, my counterpart in Lagos and the commissioner for health and we decided to upgrade our isolation centre to a full-fledge bio-security centre and the commissioner for health will be visiting Lagos and we will work together to immediately upgrade the centre in Sagamu,” he added.

“The information we have is that the particular company in question has practically shut down and they have set up two isolation centres within the company. They have identified all those that have been in contact with this index, totalling about 28 so far and they have been quarantined.

He added that surveillance centres have been reactivated in all the 20 Local Government Areas in the state and the Olabisi Onabanjo teaching hospital in Sagamu in case of an outbreak.

The governor explained that the news did not come as a shock because of the proximity with Lagos state where the patient first had an encounter.

“We are the contiguous state to Lagos; the industrial capital of this country and we shouldn’t be shocked that this has happened; Lagos is the gateway of the country and when someone comes into Lagos, they are coming into one of our industrial hubs or to do business in Ogun state and it’s not surprising that this situation is unfolding ahead of anywhere else in the country.”