April 24, 2020
By Ijendu Iheaka
Dr Joe Osuji, Abia Commissioner for Health has said that the state will soon start community testing of Coronavirus to check quick spread of the disease.
Abia recorded its first index Coronavirus cases on April 20, with two elderly persons who have no travel history.
He said that the need to test in communities arose because the manifestation of the two index cases had shown that there might have been community infection which needs to be nipped in the bud.
“The community testing will soon commence but we have not started it yet.
“We will have to complete the contact tracing before we start the community testing.
“There are protocols for testing people and there are people you can test.
“After the contact tracing those who require sample collection we will collect their samples but those who do not, we will be monitoring them everyday because we have their names, their addresses and their numbers.
“Those we cannot test test, we will now be monitoring them everyday to know their conditions should they develop any advanced symptoms, we move in to treat them”, he said.
Osuji said that the index cases may or may not have infected many persons but that having manifested the presence of the disease inside Abia, government required to act urgently to check the spread.
He noted that Governor Okezie Ikpeazu had ordered a more stringent security operations at the boundaries to stop further entrance of infected persons into the state.
The commissioner said that the medical personnel have started treatment of the two index case adding that there was no cause for alarm because they are stable.
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