Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa

Tension has enveloped Yenagoa and other parts of Bayelsa State following the confirmation of a 49-year-old female civil servant as the index case of COVID-19 in the state.

Governor Douye Diri who also heads the COVID-19 State Task Force had adopted several measures including partial lockdown, border closures, curfew, enforcing of social distancing policy and demolition of Swali markets to prevent the lethal infection getting into the state, but the measures appear not to have stopped the virus from entering the state.

Daily Sun learnt that the index case presented herself to the Bayelsa State Specialist Hospital with a history of diabetes and hypertension. However her complaints of poor appetite, fever, chest pain, headache and non-productive cough prompted medical personnel in the hospital to request for her sample to be taken and tested for COVID-19.

It was learnt that she initially refused the test insisting that she was not suffering from COVID-19,  but when she yielded to pressure and  her sample was taken, the result from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) returned positive.

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Consequently the Bayelsa Specialist Hospital has been shut down and all medical personnel and staff that attended to her have been quarantined with their samples taken for tests.

Diri who briefed journalist on the latest developments called for calm, noting that it was time for Bayelsans to show understanding with the preventive measures taken by the government to check the spread of the virus.The governor who said the index case had been taken to the Niger Delta Teaching Hospital Okolobiri noted that the state task force team would remain on response mode.

He therefore announced that from the midnight of Monday all residents of the state, except those on essential duties, should remain at home.

“One of the five results received yesterday night for Bayelsa State was positive for COVID-19. This is the first confirmed case in Bayelsa. The patient is a 49-year-old female, who presented herself at the Bayelsa State Specialist Hospital.  She did not admit to any travel history. She was subsequently admitted at the Bayelsa Specialist Hospital where she was being managed for malaria and uncontrolled hypertension with queried COVID-19.