Ondo confirmed cases rise to eight

TRACKING____The number of COVID-19 cases in Ondo State has risen to eight, up from last week’s two cases at the state Infectious Disease Hospital.

This is just as a landlord in Akure, the state capital, disallowed one of his tenants from Abuja to enter her apartment.

The landlord was said to have alerted the government about the tenant and she was picked up.

Her samples were collected and the result was returned positive.

Other persons who tested positive, besides the lady from Abuja, included two policemen serving in Lagos State, one of the suspected killers of Mrs. Funke Olakunrin (nee Fasoranti) and a lady admitted at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Owo.

Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, who announced the new cases at a media briefing yesterday, described the action of the two policemen as clear evidence of panic, disobedience, lack of discretion and reckless disregard for the well-being of others.

He said the journey of the two policemen to and from Lagos and Akure, even after receiving their positive status, was unnecessary, ill-advised and a total disregard for the national regulation which forbids interstate movement.

The governor said he had directed the activation of wider processes to trace, isolate and test all primary and secondary contacts with all the cases at large in the state to curtail a further spread of the infection.

Also, Imo State Governor Hope Uzodinma has said the state had recorded its first coronavirus case.

The governor announced this yesterday in a broadcast.

He said the state had conducted over 500 tests out of which one turned out positive.

Uzodinma explained that the lockdown and curfew imposed on the state had been a bitter but necessary pill to save the residents from the ravaging virus.

“As unfortunate as this reported COVID-19 case is, it should serve as a reminder to all of us that the pandemic is real. We should, therefore, take the recommended safety measures more seriously,” he said.