Coronavirus: No record of Indian variant in Edo - Obaseki

Mr Godwin Obaseki, the Edo State Governor, has stated there was no record of the Indian COVID-19 variant in Edo State as being speculated on social media.

The governor, who spoke yesterday at a press conference to provide an update on the state’s COVID-19 response, said “there is currently no update or report suggestive of any such occurrence or new case of COVID-19 reported within Edo in the past 96 hours.”

Obaseki, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Edo State Ministry of Health, Dr Osamwonyi Irowa, further hailed the Edo people for their cooperation with various strategies put in place by the government to contain the pandemic.

He said the federal government, as part of efforts to ensure the new variant of COVID-19 doesn’t enter into the country, had on 26th of April 2021 taken precautionary steps by restricting international travel from India, Brazil and Turkey, while strengthening surveillance at all entry points into the country.

“As the government, we have reached out to the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) with regards to any Indian variant in Edo and the verified information reveals that the said sample was collected in January 2021,” the governor noted.

According to him, “Edo has witnessed a 12.9 per cent drop in the number of infected persons comparatively. There has also been a 23.5 per cent comparative increase in the number of older persons infected with COVID-19 in the two waves of COVID-19 in the state.

“The prevalence of COVID-19 among young persons, especially school children in Edo, is low, dropped by 18.5 per cent comparatively for the first and second wave, most of which are asymptomatic in presentation but they pose risk for spread to older persons.

“A total of 54,534 COVID-19 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) samples for testing were collected; 4,905 persons have been infected with COVID-19; five persons are currently on treatment and 4715 persons have recovered from the disease.”

“A total of 185 persons have died, with no new case reported in the past 48 hours across the state. A total of 36,235 persons have been vaccinated across the state with the first dose of AstraZeneca Vaccine, accounting for 89.1 per cent of our set target already vaccinated,” he added.

The governor further called on citizens to make themselves available for the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination in the state, describing it as a major step in containing.