AbdulGafar Alabelewe, Kaduna; Bisi Olaniyi, Benin and Mike Odiegwu, Port Harcourt
EDO and Kaduna states on Friday discharged eight COVID-19 patients who have recovered from the disease, with five discharged in Edo while three were discharged in Kaduna.
The three patients discharged in Kaduna State were among the six persons that have so far tested positive for the virus in the state.
The State Commissioner of Health, Dr Amina Mohammed-Baloni, who disclosed this said the discharged patients tested negative twice.
The discharge of the three patients brings to four the number of cases so far discharged.
According to the Commissioner, “the three patients have each tested negative for two consecutive tests and have now been discharged.
“This brings to four the number of persons Kaduna State has discharged this week.
“There are now only two cases of Covid-19 that are yet to be discharged and we look forward to being able to do so soon,” she said.
Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State in a tweet on Friday disclosed that five COVID-19 patients were discharged after recovering from the disease.
Obaseki said: “I am pleased to announce that five of the confirmed cases have tested negative twice for coronavirus (COVID-19) in our dear state (Edo). They have thus been discharged.
“This bolsters our resolve to defeat this common enemy as we roll out more measures to check the spread of the virus and save more lives in the state.”
Meanwhile, the Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited (Total E&E) yesterday donated two ventilators and two monitors to the Rivers State Government to help in the fight against the Coronavirus pandemic in the state.
The company handed the medical equipment worth millions of naira to the state’s Commissioner for Health, Prof. Princewill Chike, in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
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Speaking while making the donation, the Executive General Manager, PHC Administration, Godwin Barika, described the coronavirus outbreak as an unprecedented pandemic.
He said: “The world is facing the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. We stand solidly with the state government because we have been partners in progress. We are presenting to you today, two ventilators and two monitors.”
Receiving the items, Chike said the two confirmed cases of coronavirus in the state had been treated, tested negative and discharged from the state’s facility.
Commending the oil firm for its donations, the commissioner said the items met the state in its hour of need and appealed to the company to help in sensitizing people about the reality of COVID-19.
He said: “Meeting us in our hour of need is important to us. This hour of need is not peculiar to our state alone. It is not peculiar to Nigeria and Africa; it is peculiar to mankind as a whole.
“We thank God people are not dying as they are dying in other parts. God is helping us knowing our inadequacies.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has a way of embarrassing even the best medical arrangements. You can see what is happening in France, USA and Britain.
“But ours God has helped us so far and we are managing and moving on. All these things you have given to us will assist us in managing patients.
“We pray the patients don’t come because the ones we have, we have discharged them, the two of them. But you know that a lot has to be followed with that prayer because we still have a lot of our ignorant brothers.
“There are people who in psychiatric parlance we call deviants. Those who have deviant behaviors, the thing you say is not supposed to be accepted is what they will accept. When we said social distancing, they think it is play.
“COVID-19 is real. Even as we are receiving this thing from you, join us as an ambassador to teach others.
“Even if you are driving pass and you see people crowded, stop and tell them there is COVID-19. The virus cannot move unless there is human person to transmit it from one place to the other.”
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