CoronaVirus Updates
Umahi joins growing list of COVID-19 positive Governors, Ortom in isolation
BY EMMANUEL OGWU
Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, has joined the growing list of state governors who have tested positive for the coronavirus disease.
At least five state governors, including Bauchi, Kaduna, Oyo, Abia and recently Ondo, had been confirmed positive at various times.
This is just as the Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom and his household have gone into isolation after his wife, Dr Mrs Eunice Ortom and one of his sons tested positive for the virus. Ortom is negative.
Ortom, at a press briefing on Saturday confirmed that his wife, his Chief of Staff, Hon. Terwase Orbunde; Head of Service, Mrs. Veronica Onyeke; Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Prof. Anthony Ijohor, among others, had tested positive for coronavirus.
Umahi, in a statement he personally signed on Saturday, said some of his aides also tested positive for the virus, noting however that they remained asymptomatic but have since self-isolate themselves in compliance with the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) protocols.
He also directed his deputy, Kelechi Igwe, to take over the administration of the state while advising residents to take all precautions outlined by health authorities to curb the spread of the virus
Governor Ortom urged residents of the Benue State to go for testing to ascertain their COVID-19 status so as to take necessary action.
“One lesson that I want Benue people to appreciate and understand is that everybody has to make himself available for testing. The more you test, the more you know your status; when you know that you are positive, then you can subject yourself to treatment,” he said.
READ: Akeredolu’s wife, security aide test positive for COVID-19
When asked if government was considering another lockdown, the Governor said the state Action Committee on COVID-19 would sit early next week to review the situation with a view to considering the next line of action.
While noting that testing positive for the virus was not a death sentence, the Governor urged people of the state to take preventive protocols seriously in order to help stop the spread of the pandemic.
The Governor’s wife had earlier issued a statement she personally signed confirming her status and one of her sons, even as she called on anybody, she might have come in contact with to go into self-isolation and subsequent testing.
“While I have taken the responsibility to personally call everyone I can recall to have had recent contact with to go for testing, I advise anyone who has had close contact with me in the last two weeks and the public to go for screening and testing,” she stated.