Okey Sampson, Umuahia
The COVID-19 positive Emmanuel Ononiwu, who was declared wanted by the Abia State Government after he absconded from a holding facility in Aba, has been re-taken into medical custody. This is even as a Bishop of the Methodist Church, Dr Sunday Ndukwo Onuoha, has urged the Muslim faithful to pray for an end to the coronavirus pandemic.
In a release at the weekend, the state Commissioner for Information, Chief John Okiyi-Kalu, said that Ononiwu is currently at the isolation centre in Amachara, Umuahia South Local Government Area of the state.
The release said Ononiwu, who reported at the Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH), Aba, with his family, was immediately moved by a state rapid response ambulance to the Abia State Specialist Hospital and Diagnostic Centre, Amachara, Umuahia for isolation and management.
Okiyi-Kalu said samples would be collected from his wife and other family members for testing while active contact tracing has commenced.
He equally disclosed that three persons who returned from Lagos to plan the burial of a relation who died in Kano and tested positive to COVID-19 have recovered and were discharged at the weekend.
Meanwhile, Bishop Onuoha has said that it was only through prayers that God would remove the coronavirus from the face of the earth and therefore urged the Muslim faithful to pray for God’s mercy.
Bishop Onuoha stated this Umuahia while hosting the Muslim community in a special get together for the peace and unity of the country.
He maintained that this period of the pandemic should serve as a reconciliatory force for people of different religion and make them cohabit for purposes of mankind supplicating to God for His mercies to
end the coronavirus in order to attain certain heights.