TheCable

AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, governor of Kwara state, says the state is monitoring 75 contacts of two COVID-19 patients in the state.

Two persons were confirmed to have tested positive for the coronavirus on Monday.

In a statement issued on Tuesday,  the governor  expressed “utter disappointment at the breach of trust” in relation to the controversy that trailed the handling of a COVID-19 patient in the state.

He said investigation into the incident which took place at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) is in progress.

Kazeem Salami, a senior consultant at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), was accused of “unethical conduct” in the management of a patient, who recently returned from the United Kingdom.

The patient eventually died and it was confirmed that he tested positive for the virus.

Salami was suspended by UITH on Monday.

The governor said the samples taken from the state to Ibadan for testing “confirmed that Kwara State now has two cases of COVID-19”.

“The first is the wife of a man who recently returned from UK. The second case is a diabetic patient who also had a travel history to the UK. He came into the country on March 18. He has since gone into self isolation with his wife. Following reasonable suspicion, sample was taken from him and he has now been confirmed positive,” he said.

“Our job is cut out for us and we are definitely not dropping the ball. Contact tracing by the Rapid Response Team of the medical advisory committee has so far netted 75 persons who have had contacts with the cases and the suspected case at UITH.

“Fellow Kwarans, this is a trying moment for the whole of mankind. But we are definitely not helpless or without reasonable preparation in Kwara State. We are also blessed with committed professionals who are up to the task and willing to stand up and be counted at this time — while also taking all precautions.”

He said as a part of efforts to “flatten the curve of transmission”, he “signed the newly prepared Kwara State Infectious Diseases (Emergency Prevention) Regulation 2020 on Monday April 6th to provide legal backings for the local management of the global health situation”.

“This is an emergency and the regulation, built around some enabling laws like the Quarantine Act of 2004, empowers us to invoke various drastic measures in the days ahead, if occasion calls for it,” he said.

“Highlights of the regulation include sanctions for anyone caught endangering public safety in whatever form or seeking to unfairly profit from our collective vulnerability and need for essential commodities at this time.”

On the probe into the UITH controversy, he demanded the “immediate suspension of Professor Alakija Kazeem Salami and every other official of UITH whose professional misconducts brought us down this path pending the outcome of the ongoing probe”.