COVID-19: Osun Begins Border Screening, Orders Market Closure

Following the report of the first confirmed case of COVID-19 infection in the State of Osun, the Governor, Mr Adegboyega Oyetola, today, announced that the state will close all its markets with effect from Friday March 27, commence land border screening  in addition to the outright ban on all public gatherings.

The State of Osun had proactively instituted pre-infection measures two weeks before the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) confirmed a case in the State, following reports of confirmed cases in adjoining States. But the government, today, announced some containment measures like preliminary screenings at land borders and the outright closure of markets with effect from Friday.

The Governor made this known at a press briefing on COVID-19.

In the words of Governor Oyetola: "Sadly, I want to say that we have the first confirmed case of the novel Coronavirus in the State. It was confirmed by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC. The case is a returnee from the United Kingdom and is currently receiving treatment."

Commenting on the methodology of the discovery, the Governor said: "The sample was tested at NCDC accredited Testing Centre, the African Centre of Excellence in Genomics of Infectious Diseases, Ede, Osun and the result returned positive on Tuesday night.

"The Government had contacted the family of the patient and has since commenced contact tracing to identify people who might have been in contact with the confirmed case," Governor Oyetola added.

The Governor also informed reporters that the State Government of Osun had long before now considered the possibility of a case since there had been reports in adjoining States and so had conducted a few tests (before the confirmed case) which returned negative.

Mr Oyetola said: "This confirmed case is not the first one we will be subjecting to investigation. But so far all the others have tested negative.

To this end, the Governor appealed to citizens to take the necessary action to avoid any precarious transmission. He said: "I want to passionately encourage all returnees from UK, US, Europe, the West African Coast and indeed other high risk countries to self-isolate and submit themselves to test, so as to assist the government in containing the spread of the virus. The Emergency number to call is 293. Other numbers are: 08035025692, 08033908772 and 08056456250."

"As part of our efforts to curb the spread of Coronavirus in the State, we have set up holding centres and the one in Asubiaro Specialist Hospital, Osogbo, is up and running, to isolate and treat suspected and reported cases of the virus in the State", he added.