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Regional News of Tuesday, 12 January 2021

Source: punchng.com

Ogun tests only 50,000 residents, one per cent of population

File photo: Ogun State map File photo: Ogun State map

The Ogun State Government said on Monday that it had only been able to test 50,000 residents, a figure that represented about one per cent of its 5.8m population.

This is as the state government raised the alarm over the rising cases of COVID-19 in the state.

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Tomi Coker, who spoke during the inauguration of the Oxygen Therapy Centre in Abeokuta, disclosed that the current COVID-19 situation in the state had assumed a dangerous dimension with its rise from 0.7 to eight per cent.

She said the number of residents that had been tested so far was stipulated by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

Cocker said, “Ogun is one of the leading states in the number of tests carried out. We’ve actually hit one person of our population, which is the stipulated number prescribed by NCDC for all states.

“We have tested over 50,000 residents of Ogun State given that our population is about 5.8m. We are now heading to two per cent. Out of the over 50,000 tested, we have about 2,500 positive.”

Coker, therefore, said if the non-pharmaceutical guidelines were adhered to, there would be no overwhelming situation in containing the pandemic.

She said, “We are responding appropriately to contain and curtail this second wave but success of our response has to be a collaborative one between the government and the individuals.”

On the oxygen therapy centre located within the Infectious Disease Hospital, Iberekodo, Abeokuta, Coker explained that the facility had 20 beds of high dependency capacity.