COVID-19 cases rise to 183 in Ogun State

• Governor Abiodun extends lockdown till month end
• Advocates use of fruits, vegetable, garlic, ginger to boost immunity
• State seeks healthcare waste management efforts to curb spread

The Ogun State government at the weekend said it had recorded the highest number of confirmed new cases of COVID-19 since the index case in February 2020.

The state’s governor, Dapo Abiodun, stated this while briefing the press on the activities of the government to curb further spread of the pandemic. He said that on one single day, there was a record of 25 new cases.

“The total new cases in the last one week is 49, thus bringing the cumulative total of confirmed cases to 183,” he said.He, however, expressed delightfulness that a new batch of 36 patients had been given a clean bill of health to rejoin their families, thus bringing the total number of those discharged to 97.

The governor, who stated that a team from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had certified the molecular laboratory in Sagamu, said that the laboratory would be available for use in the next few days.

“This will further boost our testing capacity from the current 450 tests to 600 tests per day,” he said.The governor decried the low level of compliance with the laid-down precautionary measures in the fight against COVID-19, saying: “Some people still flagrantly flout the presidential ban on inter-state travel for non-essential services and the daily night curfew.

“For example, four people from Kotangora, Niger State, were intercepted right in front of the governor’s office here at Abeokuta on Monday last week. “What is worrisome is how they managed to beat all the security barricades along the state borders and within the states that they passed through before getting into our dear state.

“While we are battling with internal migration, the immigrants from outside the country through our international land borders have also not given up despite the closure of international borders.

Nineteen nationals from Togo and Cote d’Ivoire were intercepted after crossing into Ogun State, nay Nigeria, through illegal land border routes on Wednesday.

“They are being quarantined at Idi-Iroko pending repatriation back to their countries.”

Meanwhile, Ogun State government says it has put machineries in motion to curb the community spread of Coronavirus through healthcare waste management efforts. Special Adviser to the Governor on Environment and Head of the state Waste Management Authority, Mr. Ola Oresanya, disclosed this at a training for health workers on proper healthcare waste management held at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH), Sagamu.

Oresanya said since almost all wastes in health institutions are toxic, there is the need to train health workers on proper sorting of wastes to avoid being infected and in turn spread the pandemic in their various communities. He, therefore, urged health-related institutions to store wastes in different waste bags to show how dangerous they are – Red for dangerous, Yellow for infectious, Brown for not too infectious and Black for ordinary wastes.