COVID-19: Abia To Embark On Contact Tracing Over Suspicion Of Community Infection

The Governor of Abia State, Okezie Ikpeazu has directed health officials to carry out massive contact tracing exercise across all the Local Government Areas (LGAs) where the two covid-19 index cases visited before their confirmation as positive for the virus.

He gave the directive due to suspicion of community infection since the patients(confirmed positive on 20 April) do not have any travel history in recent past.

“The two patients are old (70 and 72 years old respectively) and have no previous history of travel at least in the recent past.

“We shall embark in massive contact tracing across all the LGAs where these index cases have been associated with in the recent past; hence, Ikwuano, Ukwa West and Umuahia North will be covered during this contact tracing,” he said at a media briefing on Tuesday.

The Governor, who did not disclose the name of the private hospital that one of the patients visited, ordered the closure of the clinic while directing that all their staff be quarantined pending the release of their covid-19 results.

He added that both patients had underlying medical conditions ranging from Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, Stroke and Heart failure.

“However, we are optimistic that our medical team and the team at FMC are capable of doing a good job, God helping them.

“The state shall embark on massive community testing drawing samples from ward to ward even in local governments that are remote to the target LGAs and the details will be announced,” he said.

Meanwhile, the governor said that the suspected covid-19 cases(Miracle and Prosper) one of who was declared wanted has been found and had tested negative for the virus.

He urged residents to keep complying with the lockdown directive while observing the public health advisory on covid-19.

“All our citizens should remember that wearing of face masks in Abia is compulsory,” he said.

However, our correspondence called the state Commissioner for information, John Okiyi, to get the name of the private clinic visited by one of the index cases, but he did not respond.