Osun has no COVID-19 positive returnee — Egbemode

There is no fresh returnee to Osun State that has tested positive to Coronavirus Disease.

This was stated in a statement by the Osun state Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Funke Egbemode, on Thursday.

Egbemode’s reaction followed rumours making the rounds that some of the new returnees from Abidjan in cote d’Ivoire had COVID-19 before leaving their country of abode.

However, it can be recalled that the returnees were quarantined in Lagos State for 14 days to check their COVID-19 status before they were allowed to proceed on their journey.

The returnees, who entered the country through the Seme Border in Lagos State, were quarantined in two hotels in Badagry and attended to by officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Health, were only left go go after they tested negative.

Egbemode in the statement said this was the condition in which the state received the returnees.

She said in the statement: “This is to officially ALLAY the fears and panic in the public informed by insinuations that the State Government of Osun allowed a new batch of Ivory Coast returnees into the State, after the first experience which led to a surge of confirmed cases of the COVID-19 disease in the state.

“The State Government wishes to set the record straight, thus: 49 indigenes of Osun yesterday returned to the state. 41 are from Ejigbo and 8 from Iwo. We have an official  report  showing they all have tested negative for COVID-19.

“These 49 indigenes of Osun, on arrival from Ivory Coast, were graciously received by the Lagos State Government at the Nigeria-Benin border, were quarantined for 14-days in Lagos State’s facility in Badagry where they were tested for COVID-19 infection during the period. Those who tested positive to the disease were moved into Isolation Wards in Lagos, while those who tested negative to the infection were cleared and those from Osun  were allowed to return to State of Osun, their destination.

“The State Government of Osun hereby assures its citizens that there is no cause for alarm or reason to panic. The returnees who were accepted into the State have been certified to join the society by the appropriate agencies of the government. Hence, they pose no risk or threat to the people of Osun.

“The State Government urges its citizens  continue to trust that this administration is committed to protecting the people of Osun with everything within its powers.”