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Joe Effiong, Uyo
Akwa Ibom State government has rolled out the drums to celebrate negative tests of three of the initial five persons who tested positive to the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic in the state.
Five persons tested positive for the disease in one fell swoop in the state on April 2, 2020, prompting the state government to initially reject the result before Gov Udom Emmanuel made an official broadcast to declare a 14-day lockdown which expires this Thursday.
Breaking the news to journalists on Wednesday at the lobby of the Ibom Multi-Specialty Hospital where the index cases were isolated, the state Commissioner for Health, Dr Dominic Ukpong, said apart from the five persons, four other persons suspected to be harbouring the virus were equally quarantined, making a total of nine suspected COVID-19 patients at the health facility.
“I want to remind you that we started the first series of test with five cases and they all came out negative in the first test. We then sent back another group of 17; out of which 5 came out positive; and we have been managing them in this hospital
“The procedure requires that after testing positive, the person has to be retested. During that period, more patients came in; we tested them. So we had a total of 9 patients.
“Today, we are glad to tell you that after repeated tests, we’re discharging six. We have two cases whose test came back positive, and one new case. So, we have only one case, and two cases that had tested positive before and have repeated the positivity.
“So, we are glad to discharge these people who have fully recovered; added together, six people are going to leave the hospital now,” Ukpong said.
He explained that the new cases announced on Tuesday only arrived in the country at the end of March but that she might have contracted the disease within the state through contact.
Ukpong said the state had reached out to more than 400 persons who must have had contacts with the index cases, but that none of them had developed a symptom of the disease.
But he said that 66 of them were actually tested and after more than a month without further symptoms, they were no longer required to remain in self-isolation.
The state Commissioner for Information who spoke with Daily Sun at the venue said the live band contracted to supply music at the event was a way of celebrating the lives of those discharged.
“It’s part of the celebration. We have to celebrate. These are people considered dead, so today we are celebrating because they are alive,” Udoh said.
