Clement Adeyi, Osogbo
Osun State, at the weekend, recorded second coronavirus fatality with the demise of a female patient in her late 60s.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr Rafiu Isamotu, who disclosed this in a statement on Saturday, said that the victim passed on at the Asubiaro isolation centre, Osogbo.
“On a sad note, we lost a COVID-19 patient in her late 60s at our isolation centre in Osogbo. We pray God to grant her eternal rest and give her family the fortitude to bear the loss,” he said.
This brings the number of the COVID-19 fatalities in the state to three as two male patients that had tested positive for the virus died last weekend at the Ede and Ile-Ife isolation centres.
Isamotu also disclosed that the state, on Saturday, discharged its COVID-19 index case after testing negative twice for the virus, 38 days after he was taken in.
He recalled that the case had arrived Osun from the United Kingdom before he was taken into the Isolation centre and subsequently to the care facility, where he had been receiving adequate medical care until his full recovery on Friday.
The commissioner added that three health workers in the who tested positive for the coronavirus, had also tested negative for the second time and were now free of the virus.
Isamotu also recalled that the health workers had, last Wednesday, tested negative for COVID-19 but had to be subjected to a second round of test in line with the protocol of the Nigeria Centre for Diseases Control (NCDC).
He disclosed that the state government received results of the index case and those of the health workers’ second test on Friday evening from the NCDC-accredited Testing Centre, the African Centre of Excellence in Genomics of Infectious Diseases, Ede.
“With the development, the total number of active cases in the state is now eight,” Isamotu disclosed.
He, however, urged frontline health workers to always use their Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) while on duty.
He also reiterated that only accredited isolation and treatment centres in the state were allowed to attend to suspected COVID-19 patients.