Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
Ondo State Governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu has announced a dusk-to-dawn curfew in all parts of the state with immediate effect as the state records its third Coronavirus case.
The governor who confirmed the third COVID-19 case in a state-wide broadcast, said the curfew will be between 7 pm and 7 am while all the boundaries with other states will remain closed.
He said the latest victim of COVID 19 case is a medical practitioner resident with the Nigerian Army Clinic at the Owena Cantonment in Akure.
According to him the victim came in contact with the index case who is an army officer, while administering healthcare to him as a suspected case in the clinic at the army base.
He said the index case came back from a national assignment in India and his first point of examination and treatment was the army barracks from where the rest of the protocols were observed until he was confirmed and isolated.
Akeredolu said “as a government, we took the conscious effort to monitor all the health workers in the army clinic in order to track any possibility of primary or secondary infection. We also expanded this to all the possible and known contacts of the index case in the barracks.
“This serious effort helped us to identify the current case who developed symptoms after the index case was confirmed. We took his samples for testing. The sample was confirmed positive. He has since been transferred to the Infectious Diseases Hospital for proper care.
“However, for the avoidance of doubt the current case is not currently a serving member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) as earlier announced. He is an employee of the Nigerian Army Barracks who served as a medical practitioner in the same facility in the year 2017 and was retained,” he added.
The governor enjoined residents of the state to continue with handwashing, social and physical distancing, discontinuance of social gathering and avoidance of unnecessary movement outside their homes.
He lamented that “it is disturbing that our designated markets, some religious organisations and several other public places still thrive in total disregard of such directives. I have also been briefed of the pressures on our borders, occasioning infiltration by people and vehicles from neighbouring states. The implications of this can be better imagined.”
The governor while stressing the need for all and sundry to join hands with the government to wage war against the deadly disease said “the point must be made again that the fight against COVID- 19 is a responsibility that will demand utmost seriousness, vigilance and attention. There is the need for effective measure of containment, investigation, enforcement and control, and government will not shy away from its duty to ensure same.”
Also, Akeredolu ordered the arrest and detention of individuals found to have breached government’s directives on restriction of movement of persons and goods, operation of business premises and community markets, religious gatherings and public bars and other social activities within the state.
However, he gave exceptions to where food and medical items are sold with total compliance with social and physical distancing.
He also ordered the arrest and detention of individuals and goods being transported into the state through the state’s borders in breach of extant directive on total closure of the borders.