To avert the community spread of the dreadful COVID 19 pandemic, the Ekiti State government would next week begin random testing for residents across the state.
The government also promised to ensure that security agencies enforcing the lockdown do not infringe on the rights of the suspected offenders in the state.
The State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Mojisola Yaya-Kolade spoke in Ado Ekiti, yesterday while giving an update on the COVID 19 report in the state.
The commissioner added that all the claims by institutions that they have produced a herbal cure for COVID 19 must be scrutinised and made to pass through medical screening before approval.
She said the random testing, which will be done across the 16 local government areas, must be undertaken given the geometric increase in the number of COVID 19 patients.
She said it will not be done by coercion, but through sensitisation and volition.
Yaya-Kolade revealed that the state would soon set up a molecular laboratory to boost the state’s testing capacity so that many people can know their statuses and be aware of their safety.
The Commissioner stated that the state presently has only five patients in the isolation centre, which she said are stable, responding to treatment and asymptomatic.
“We are still tracing some contacts and we are expecting our molecular laboratory soon just as we are still preaching prevention and containment through the usage of masks and personal hygiene and social financing.
“We will begin random testing next week to stop community spread. The state is doing a lot of infection prevention training for our health workers to make our people safe.
“We are also thinking about complying with the new NCDC regulation that you can discharge after the first negative result if you are overburdened with patients. But we are going to be cautious in applying this.
Speaking on the issue of border porosity, the Director-General, Office of Strategic Transformation and Delivery, Prof Bolaji Aluko, said the measure becomes the best alternative because the scourge was brought into the state by outsiders.
“Some of them came from Katsina, Lagos and Kano, which had made it imperative for us to secure our border and make us safe.
The Commissioner for Environment, Hon Gbenga Agbeyo, said the state has put up proper machinery to arrest and prosecute violators of the lockdown in Ekiti, particularly those flouting the closure of major markets and border areas.