The Government of Bayelsa State on Thursday confirmed that nine persons have tested positive for COVID-19, saying one of the nine patients, a female, died five minutes after she was admitted at the state isolation centre.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health and Deputy Chairman of the State COVID -19 Task Force, Dr Inodu Apoku, while addressing newsmen in Yenagoa said the new COVID -19 related death brings the total of such deaths to three.
Explaining further he said the nine newly confirmed cases bring the total number of confirmed cases in the State to 30 and that four of out of the nine cases are contacts of previously confirmed cases while five, including three health care professionals, are not epidemiologically linked to any of the previously confirmed cases.
The Permanent Secretary further revealed that three cases have been discharged while fifteen cases still remain active in the State, It is becoming that the state may be dealing with community transmission.
Dr Inodu said “five days ago, Bayelsa recorded nine new confirmed cases of COVID -19. Yesterday again, we recorded another nine new confirmed cases of COVID -19. This was not unexpected because of our robust surveillance activities and improved testing rates. We averagely send forty samples on a daily basis to the UPTH Reference Laboratory.
The core of our COVID -19 mitigation strategy is to test aggressively, isolate, treat and conduct robust contacts tracing. It is also now apparent we are dealing with community transmission. These nine newly confirmed cases bring the total number of confirmed cases in the State to 30.
“Four of out of these nine cases are contacts of previously confirmed cases while five are not epidemiologically linked to any of the previously confirmed cases. Three of these cases are health care professionals.
“One of these fresh unlinked cases was brought in critically ill and died a few minutes after admission. Following the history of the sickness, as was revealed by relatives, samples were collected for COVID -19 testing.
“She died a COVID -19 suspected case and has since been buried after relatives were counselled on safe burial practices. The test result returned positive and as such we have another COVID -19 related death making a total of three such deaths in the state.
“All remaining eight new cases have since been evacuated for further treatment at our Isolation facilities. All their contacts are being line listed and adequately followed up including necessary environmental decontamination.
“Samples have and are still being collected from their high -risk contacts while they have all been counselled on self-quarantine. Risk communication and community engagement are ongoing.
“Three cases were discharged today. Currently, we have fifteen active cases of COVID -19 in the state. All these cases are clinically stable. The State Government Quarantine Facility has since being admitting contacts who are unable to self-quarantine. They have been very cooperative while enjoying the luxury provided at this centre.”
