Osun State government, on Wednesday, confirmed additional nine cases of COVID-19, making the cases in the state fourteen in all.
It said the confirmed cases were returnees from Ivory Coast.
It explained that 127 returnees from the Francophone country were traveling on six buses enroute Osun State, but became stranded at Benin-Nigeria border in Ogun State, which necessitated prompt move by Osun State government to rescue them.
This was made known during a press conference jointly addressed by the duo of Commissioner of Health , Dr Rafiu Isamotu and the Chief Press Secretary to governor Adegboyega Oyetola, Ismail Omipidan.
Omipidan, in his address reiterated government readiness to put every necessary mechanism in place to protect its citizenry against the novel disease at all times.
He, however, added that not all the returnees hailed from the state, adding that government decided to evacuate all of them from where they were stranded and subjected them to thorough screening to ascertain their status as part of the measures to contain the spread of the disease.
Omipidan said: “The returnees, who were 127 in all were traveling in six buses enroute Osun, and became stranded in Ogun State at the Benin-Nigeria border, in which Governor Gboyega Oyetola responded promptly after being contacted by his counterpart in Ogun State.
“Arrangement was made for their immediate movement from that point to an isolation centre in Ejigbo, where they were subjected to medical examination to ascertain their status .
“Twenty four persons were tested during the first batch of the exercise, in which three tested positive for Covid-19, also, among the 47 samples tested in the second round of the medical examination, nine have been confirmed positive.
“The total number of confirmed cases we have at hand is fourteen, and we call on the Federal government for quick intervention.”
He further disclosed that the state at present has three isolation centres, in which two were sited in Osogbo, the Osun State capital , while the remaining one was situated at Ile-ife.
The Commissioner of Health, Rafiu Isamotu in his remarks commended governor Oyetola for what he termed laudable and proactive response to stop the spread of Covovid-19 in the state.
Isamotu added that the reason for giving medical attention to all the occupants of the six buses from Ivory Coast was to curtail community spread of the virus.
He also explained that medical personnel are seriously working on contact tracing of the index case as well as the second confirmed case.
