Ebonyi State has recorded three additional COVID-19-related deaths, bringing the number of fatalities to six.
The state Commissioner for Heath, Dr Daniel Umezuruike, who disclosed this on Tuesday, also put the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state at 508.
Umezuruike, who spoke during a meeting of the state Anti-COVID-19 Task Force at the Old Government House, Abakaliki, however, said out of the 508 confirmed cases, 426 patients had been successfully treated and discharged.
The commissioner said, “Everyday, COVID-19 poses different challenges and we have to review our strategies and approaches to contain it.
“In Ebonyi State currently, we have 508 confirmed cases of the coronavirus. We have managed and discharged 426 patients and unfortunately, we have lost six cases. This is all because of your efforts and that of other stakeholders.
“Right from the beginning, the governor, came up with a lot of measures to ensure we didn’t record any case, but unfortunately we had our index case on April 26, 2020. However, since then we have been working tirelessly to ensure we don’t have community transmission, but that also started happening and that is where we are now.
“In his best initiative, the governor wants us to begin this house-to-house approach and that is the best way to go now. The truth is that we already have community transmission and if we continue our usual approach of intercepting persons of interest at the borders and bringing them to the quarantine centres, that is not going to be effective anymore, because we have people who are sick in the communities and sometimes they don’t go the hospitals, because of one reason or the other, and also for fear of stigmatisation.”
