Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has declared one Mrs. Amaka Okoro, who tested positive for coronavirus disease, wanted for treatment.
He announced this on Thursday, during a media briefing in Benin to update the state on the progress made so far to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the state.
According to the Governor, the COVID-19 patient is a nursing mother, who has a baby that is already coughing.
“She lives at 2 Atoe Idubor Str, off 2nd Ugbor, Benin City. She has been unreachable since her results returned positive.” he said.
Meanwhile, Obaseki has extended the dusk-to dawn curfew imposed in the state to check the spread of coronavirus disease for another 14 days.
He, however, made an hour upward review of the curfew from 8pm to 6am.
“Since my last public update about 10 days ago, I am here to inform you that we have made tremendous progress in the area of screening, testing and improved awareness of our citizens about the virus.
“We are working closely with public and private hospitals, we have screened about 20,000 people and tested 297 citizens.
“This increased screening and testing is the reason for the increased number of cases in the state.
“We are aggressively pushing to screen our minimum target of about 500,000 people and test about one percent of them which is about 5,000, in the next few weeks.
“As we increase testing, we are likely to see an astronomic rise in the number of cases in the state.
“Of the 20,000 people, we have screened and of the 297 samples taken, we have recorded 37 confirmed cases as at today, discharged eight and lost three people.
“It is worthy of note that late testing was a strong factor leading to fatality. That is why I’m advising that everybody go out for screening at the numerous screening centres in the state,” he said.
Obaseki noted that the various screening centres offers free medical services, free face mask and free multivitamins .
“I’m confident that we can beat this virus if we follow the measures put in place strictly.
“I want to appreciate the good people of the state for their cooperation and compliance with the curfew which l imposed 10 day ago.
“I know that the curfew has created inconveniences and loss of income to many families. However, this is the sacrifice we have to make to protect the citizens and their families.
“We have decided to commence another round of palliative distribution to the vulnerable groups in our communities.
“With the lessons we have learnt in the past, we have put measures in place to make sure that only the targeted people receives these items,” he added.