TheCable

Okezie Ikpeazu, governor of Abia, says two of his aides have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Ikpeazu made this known in a statement on Tuesday.

The development comes two days after state officials were asked to go into self-isolation following the death of Solomon Ogunji, commissioner for environment.

“Leading this battle from the front as your Governor, I and all members of the first family subjected ourselves to COVID-19 tests on Saturday, 30th May 2020 and the results came out negative today,” Ikpeazu said.

“Unfortunately, results of two of my aides, who also subjected themselves to COVID-19 tests, were positive while others turned in negative results.”

According to the governor, those who tested positive have been admitted to the state’s isolation facility and government had started making plans to conduct mass testing as part of efforts to contain the spread of the virus.

“The new phase of the fight against COVID-19 in Abia will require the state to embark on massive test of citizens to achieve at least 10 per cent coverage of the population at the initial stage of the exercise,” he said.

“The state epidemiologist has been directed to work out modalities for case searches using sample population size of between 30 persons to 250 persons, in some densely populated local government areas of the state.”

He urged residents to desist from stigmatising the families of COVID-19 patients and persons that had recovered from the disease, adding that collective responsibility was the best weapon against COVID-19 spread.

“Let me put it on record that statistics show that far more people recover from the virus than those who pass away from it,” he said.

He directed the transition committee chairmen of the 17 local government councils in Abia, with their deputies, to present themselves for COVID-19 test and isolate themselves pending the release of their test results.