By Adeniyi Adedeji, Ilorin
Seven persons in the Kwara State isolation centre, who have tested negative to coronavirus infection have been discharged.
Kwara State governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, who made this known while on an inspection visit to the centre said the seven of them have tested negative twice while there, leading to their consequent release.
Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Rafiu Ajakaiye, in a statement, said among the seven, two persons were out of the four COVID-19 patients, after they had both twice tested negative.
“They were discharged alongside five members of their families who were also at the state’s isolation centre and have equally twice tested negative,” Ajakaiye explained in the statement.
He said the governor persuaded citizens of the state not to see testing positive for the virus as a crime saying, “Anyone could contract it,” and warned against stigmatization of COVID-19 patients or their families.
Governor AbdulRazaq was quoted by Ajakaye to have said, “I’m glad to announce to you that we are discharging a total of seven persons from our isolation facility.
“Among these are our first two (index) cases (a male and a female) who have twice tested negative for COVID-19.
“The remaining five are members of their families who were on quarantine and have also twice tested negative to the virus.
“With the exit of the seven persons, we have 11 persons left in the facility. Two of these 11 are COVID-19 patients while the remaining nine are people with varying contacts with them.
“We commend our health workers for their professionalism and commitment. We assure them of our support now and always. We are working out incentives for every health worker at this facility to deepen their confidence in the system that we will always look after them.
“Our two remaining patients are in the best spirit and are doing pretty good. We wish them quick recovery.
“Government restates that COVID-19 is not a death sentence. Government will punish anyone who stigmatises any of our patients or members of their families.
“The government is proud of all the people of Kwara State for their support and understanding at this time of lockdown. It is to flatten the curve of transmission and save all of us from this pandemic.”
For now, Kwara only has two confirmed cases of COVID-19 as at Thursday morning after two of the four initial cases have been found to be negative while test results were being awaited for 43 others.
In all, “Kwara State had run a total of 85 tests, out of which four returned as positive,” the governor’s spokesman added.
