FIC Report (Abia State) – In direct response to the two confirmed index cases of Coronavirus in the State, Abia State Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu has disclosed that his government has dispatched officers in rigorous contact tracing to ascertain others who might have had contact with the index cases.
Governor Okezie Ikpeazu made this public while briefing the Press on the development in Government House, Umuahia. According to the Governor massive contact tracing would commence in Ikwuano, Umuahia North and Ukwa West Local Government Areas of the State as the index cases had contact with persons in those LGAs.
Dr. Ikpeazu ordered the immediate closure of the private clinic where one of the index cases was being treated as well as quarantining of staff and patients of the health outfit.
He revealed that the index cases are Septugenarians who had no previous traveling history in recent times, disclosing that while one is 70, the other is 72 years old.
He equally informed that the two index cases have underlining medical conditions.
The Governor made public that his administration shall embark on massive community testing and called on frontline officers and everyone who has a role to play to redouble efforts and show greater commitment to the fight against the disease.
The Governor, who enjoined Abia people and residents to maintain the covid 19 preventive measures including, regular and proper hand-washing, use of hand-sanitizers, social distancing among others informed that his administration has trained frontline officers, provided 6 ambulances to support logistics of picking suspected cases, provided ventilators, enough Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and additional face masks. He however restated that anyone who allows himself to be used to undermine government’s efforts to fight the virus would be regarded as a saboteur and be made to face the wrath of the law.
He reminded Abians that it is now compulsory to wear face masks while outside, stating that any person who flouts this directive will have himself to blame.
In a related development,the Chief Medical Director of the Federal Medical Center Umuahia (FMC), Dr. Azubuike Onyebuchi has debunked insinuations that the death of a House Doctor at the Hospital had any links with COVID-19.
In a statement released to Newsmen, the Hospital Chief Director made it clear that the Doctor’s death had no links whatsoever with the two confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the hospital.
According to the CMD, the late doctor had no symptoms of the disease and had no form of contact with the two confirmed cases at the hospital. The late doctor, the CMD continued, had just resumed work at the hospital just four days before his death and played no role at all in the management of the confirmed COVID-19 cases.
He urged the general public to ignore such rumours making the rounds on several social media platforms that the hospital was never shut down due to the two confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the hospital.
Continuing,the Medical Director of the hospital, Dr. Azubuike Onyebuchi reiterated that the rumour is unfounded and the product of mischief makers who want to create unnecessary panic and confusion.
According to the MD, what the hospital management did was to temporarily close the units of the hospital where the two index cases passed through.
The Accident and Emergency Unit, the ICU and the two wards where the patients passed through were closed to the public for purposes of DECONTAMINATION which involves the use of chemicals to clean up the areas.
He maintained that once a place is decontaminated, the place will be shut down for 48 hours and after that, it will be reopened again.
He said that other units of the hospital and other wards are open and patient are being attended to.
The session also featured questions from different journalists and responses from the Governor.
The Governor was joined by the Deputy Governor Ude Oko Chukwu, Secretary to Government, Barrister Chris Ezem, Honorable Commissioner for Health, Dr Joe Osuji, Chief of Staff to the Governor, Dr ACB Agbazuere and the Medical Director of the Federal Medical Center Umuahia.
