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The Bayelsa State Task Force on COVID-19 has said that 140 blood samples sent to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) approved laboratory in Edo State between March and April, 2020 have all tested negative.
The co-chairman of the State Task Force on Covid-19, Dr Inodu Apoku, who disclosed this on Monday during a media briefing in Yenagoa, explained that surveillance is ongoing in the eight local government areas of the state.
Apoku, who is also the permanent secretary in the state Ministry of Health, announced that the state government is working to set up a COVID-19 reference laboratory in the state.
He noted that over two hundred thousand persons who had been screened at the point of entry into the state had not shown any significant symptoms of concerns as regarding Coronavirus.
He said the state task force has also formed the local government task force in all the eight local governments of the state to handle the community mobilization and enlightenment campaigns in rural and riverine communities.
He said: “Currently, the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital has a ready to use 6-bed isolation facility, however, they have earmarked some additional wards that can be converted to isolation facility, if need arises. These additional facilities can accommodate another 100 bed isolation capabilities.
“The Federal Medical Centre had also established a 22-bed isolation facility in Yenagoa, while the state government has also identified a facility within Bayelsa medical University to be used as isolation facility, it can accommodate a 100 bed.
“We have trained Patent Medicine Vendors and Community Pharmacists on case finding/surveillance, as well as volunteers in all villages for active search for persons with symptoms of Coronavirus,” he said.
