Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, Chairman IMC on COVID-19, Akwa Ibom state.
Abasifreke Effiong – Uyo
The Akwa Ibom state Incident Management Committee,(IMC) the coordinating task force on COVID-19 says the five persons who tested positive are now “hale and hearty”.
The committee maintained that no new case was found while contact – tracing those who had contacts with the first five persons that tested positive with Coronavirus.
“The Incident Management Committee has continued to intensify efforts at contact tracing following standard medical procedures. So far no downstream infections have been recorded.”
READ : Security officers enforcing lockdown in Akwa Ibom are at safety risk
Chairman of the committee, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, who is the Secretary to the State Government said the five persons who are under quarantine are waiting for a reconfirmation test.
Recall that when the NCDC announced the five cases that tested positive in Akwa Ibom, the state government rejected the result, insisted that there was no case of Coronavirus in the state.
Commissioner for Health in Akwa Ibom State, Dr. Dominic Ukpong, at a press conference said the announcement of the result by NCDC did not follow “standard procedures.”
READ ALSO : Delta state records first case of Coronavirus
While the state was battling to accept the result, the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, UUTH, raised alarm that its clinical staff who had contact with the persons who tested positive to COVID-19 have absconded from their duty post.
The hospital’s CMD, Dr. Emem Bassey, had said there was no case of Coronavirus in the hospital a week earlier.
Giving updates on the state’s response to the Coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday, Ekuwem said the state government is building a 300 bed capacity isolation center at Methodist General Hospital, Ituk Mbang, Uruan local government area to complement the two other isolation centers at Ibom Multi Specialty Hospital, Itam, and Infectious Diseases Hopital, Ikot Ekpene.
He said the state has bought a large number of personal protective equipment and distributed them to relevant health institutions.
The prices of personal protective equipment have skyrocketed in Akwa Ibom since the outbreak of the pandemic.
“All five reported positive test cases of COVID 19 in the state earlier taken in isolation custody, now in quarantine, are hale and hearty while awaiting the conduct of a reconfirmation test.”
“Even though, they have not shown any noticeable symptoms, they are under close observation by a team of specialized medical experts.”
“Construction work has commenced on a 300 bedroom Isolation Centre in Ituk Mbang General Hospital to complement existing Isolation Centres in Ikot Ekpene and Uyo.”
Ekuwem said government is planning to
provide relief materials to residents of the state to cushion the effect of the restriction of movement.
 the coordinating task force on COVID-19 says no downstream infections have been found.){kind=link}