Covid-19: Ekiti to Prosecute Patient, Quarantines Seven Kano Returnees

By Victor Ogunje

The Ekiti State Government has vowed to prosecute a Covid-19 patient who brought the disease from Katsina State despite the lockdown order and prohibition of interstate movements in the state.

In a bid to prevent the importation of Covid-19 to Ekiti State, the government has also quarantined seven men who forcefully entered the state from Kano and three other females who came from Oyo State.

The woman, who came from Katsina to visit her husband, a military man working in Ekiti State, was discovered to have contracted Covid-19 after her husband alerted the task force when she started manifesting symptoms.

The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Mojisola Yaya-Kolade, who spoke in Ado Ekiti Wednesday, said the woman who came to visit her husband at a time there was a lockdown had committed an offence, which she said flagrantly violated the law of the state.

“Though, It was the husband who alerted us, but it was an offence against the state and the Ministry of Justice will take appropriate actions against her at the right time,” she said.

The commissioner added that the woman’s husband, who was the only main contact, has been quarantined for 14 days in line with the World Health Organisation’s guidelines.

“Let me also tell the public that all the patients in the isolation centre are stable and responding to treatment. And those who are persistently positive to testing are still being kept. With the level we have gone, we have nothing to worry about.

“The only fear we have is the fact that the curfew has been relaxed and people are not observing social distancing. People are still coming into the state through the borders via forceful and illegal means,” she said.

Yaya-Kolade said Governor Kayode Fayemi is liaising with the federal government for the building of a Covid-19 laboratory in the state.

Also speaking, the Senior Special Assistant to the governor on Public Health, Dr. Jimlas Ogunsakin, revealed that seven people who returned to the state from Kano and three other females who forcefully entered Ekiti had been quarantined to contain the spread of the deadly scourge.

“We got several tip offs from people and we acted on them. The Kano returnees came to Adeparusi estate in Adebayo and some came to Atinkankan area. We got the information from the public and we got them arrested and they were quarantined immediately,” Ogunsakin said.

On the wellbeing of the patients at the isolation centre, he said: “Water facilities and others are freely provided. Before we started using the place, it was renovated optimally. We give food three times daily to all the patients despite that the protocols didn’t entail that.”

The Commissioner for Information, Mr. Muyiwa Olumilua, said government has constituted an Environmental Taskforce to monitor compliance with protocols at market places, religious centres, banks and by commercial motorcyclists.

Olumilua said starting from Friday, the security agencies have been given the matching orders to arrest those not using the masks, adding that such people will be prosecuted.