Priscilla Ediare, Ado-Ekiti
The Ekiti State Commissioner for Health, Mojisola Yaya-Kolade, has disclosed that the state still has 98 COVID-19 active cases with 80 people still being treated at the 120-bed capacity isolation centre.
The commissioner said the state has recorded four deaths with the last one involving a 54- year-old man who died recently due to COVID-19 complications with underlining factor of diabetes.
Speaking at a COVID-19 Task Force press briefing, on Wednesday, Yaya-Kolade said: “Ekiti still has 98 active cases while we have recorded 206 cases with 80 patients still being treated in our isolation.
“From inception, we have treated and discharged 104 patients. We had recorded four deaths, with the last one involving a 54- year old man who had diabetes. We have done a lot to ensure that we boost our testing capacity through the establishment of a molecular laboratory.
“The isolation centre has the necessary life support facilities and we are taking our tests to all the 16 local governments. The patients were being given immune booster and we are telling our people to make themselves available. This disease is treatable, so our people should not hide.”
Also speaking, the Coordinator of the COVID-19 Task force, Prof. Bolaji Aluko, said a total of 187 schools
that are taking part in the West African Secondary School Certificate Examinations(WASSCE) have reopened and they were being monitored in order not to breach the COVID-19 protocols.
He said the task force and a team from the Ministry of Education had visited all the schools prior to reopening and ensured that all necessary safety facilities were put in place in order not to endanger the students’ lives.
Aluko also expressed satisfaction with compliance with regulations by mosques and churches that reopened on August 14 and 17, respectively.
“Mosques and churches have begun operation and we had good reports that they were abiding by the rules. We have a monitoring group that are visiting all worshipping centres and they are giving us good reports.
“We have sampled some churches and mosques and we saw that they had different ways of complying with social distancing in the arrangements of their seats. Children and elderly people were also excused from services, this was commendable.
“We are still enforcing the compulsory use of face masks and prosecution of defaulters around town and we can do this anytime.”
He said the task force has been beaming its searchlight on pharmacy stores and hotels with clubbing facilities, saying the closure of some of these premises have not been arbitrary.
“We have not been going to these premises acting arbitrarily. We have received letter of assurances from some of them that were shut and reopened pledging to abide by all COVID-19 protocols to ensure safety of Ekiti residents.”