Priscilla Ediare, Ado-Ekiti
Ekiti State has recorded its first death of COVID-19 patient, as the third index case, a 29-year-old woman, passed on.
The woman died at the Intensive Care Unit of Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido-Ekiti, yesterday.
The woman, who was a health worker in Lagos, sneaked into Ekiti last week before she fell into prolonged labour leading to the discovery that she had contracted the virus.
Commissioner for Health, Mojisola Yaya-Kolade, who confirmed this in Ado-Ekiti, at a press conference, said the woman died at about 6.58am.
Yaya-Kolade regretted that the late COVID-19 patient infected a 45-year-old medical doctor, who had now been identified as the fourth index case by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
“The woman showed signs of stability on Monday, but unfortunately, her condition deteriorated yesterday and we lost her at exactly 6.58am today (yesterday),” she said.
On whether her body will be released to the family, Yaya-Kolade said the state will take precaution and comply with the World Health Organisation’s safety rules on the burial.
“We are going to liaise with the family on her burial. We are going to consider safety despite that there was assumption that the virus is not active in corpse, because we don’t know much about it.
“But whatever we are going to do won’t be against the interest of the family. Let me assure you that the state will also be on the side of safety,” she said.
Yaya-Kolade said the hospital where the patient died had been sanitised by the government since the woman was hospitalised.
She, however, advised the public not to stigmatise the hospital because of the incident.