Two out the 12 persons, who tested positive for COVID-19 in Osun have died, the state governor, Mr Gboyega Oyetola has disclosed.
He made this disclosure while addressing a press conference inside the Oke Fia Government House in Osogbo.
Oyetola, however, said that the people of the state should not panic, assuring that his government was on top of the situation.
In a related news, two patients who tested positive for COVID-19 in Borno state have escaped from the the state isolation centre.
Abbas Kaka Hassan, a 24 year-old male, and Hauwa Mohammed, a 42 year-old female, are on the run after testing positive to COVID-19 at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital in Borno State.
The male is from Layin Tanki in Gwange 11 while the woman lives in Shuwari ward.
Borno Commissioner of Health and Secretary to the state’s response team for the prevention and control of COVID-19, Dr Salisu Kwayabura announced this at the team’s daily media briefings which held on Sunday at the government house in Maiduguri.
The commissioner said the male patient (Abbas), who was in initial telephone contact with the response team after his sample was collected, eventually switched off his phone when he learnt he tested positive. He also said a phone number through which the patient’s mother was in touch with the team, has also been switched off.
“When samples of patients with contacts to index cases are collected, they are normally advised to go on self-isolation. They give their contacts so they can be reached when results are out. This is the standard medical procedure. You can’t detain someone with suspected contact. We do not have the lawful powers to do that. Other patients were also allowed to leave but they came into isolation centres and we have 19 of them in two isolation centres. However, the young man in question, chose to go into hiding”.
He noted that a diligent surveillance and investigation team is working very hard to track the patient.
Dr Kwayabura called on anyone who tests positive for Coronavirus not to regard it as a death sentence as majority of those who test positive have recovered from the disease.
