Posted on: Tue 23-02-2021

Edo State has recorded 54 new cases and four deaths from COVID-19 in the last 72 hours, as the state government restated the need for residents to comply with prevention protocols to contain the spread of the virus.

State COVID-19 Incident Manager, Dr. Andrew Obi, disclosed this yesterday during a virtual meeting of the COVID-19 Task Force, presided over by Governor Godwin Obaseki.

Obi noted that the state has also recorded 210 recoveries with 714 active cases that are being managed at various treatment and isolation centres in the state.

“Edo State has, in the last 72 hours, recorded 54 confirmed cases, four more deaths and 210 recoveries from COVID-19,” he said.

He stressed the need for compulsory wearing of face masks, observing social distancing and ensuring regular washing of hands with soap under running water, among other guidelines.

“Edo is facing a more violent strain of the virus in the second wave, as all indices, including case positivity and death rates are higher when compared with the first wave,” he added.

MEANWHILE, the Rivers State House of Assembly has passed a bill for the compulsory wearing of facemasks in public places in the State.

A representative of Emohua Constituency and Chairman, House Committee on Health, Sam Ogeh sponsored the bill titled: Enforcement of Wearing of Face Masks.

Ogeh said the bill would give the State Ministry of Health and Law Enforcement Agencies the legal rights to arrest and prosecute offenders.

Lamenting residents’ flagrant disobedience of the COVID-19 protocols, Ogeh said the move would further help to check the spread of the virus and commended the state government, corporate organisations and individuals for their efforts in the fight against coronavirus.

Speaker of the House, Ikwuinyi Owaji-Ibani, lamented that the COVID-19 pandemic had altered global narrative and equation.

“A new enemy (COVID-19) has altered all that had been in the world and that is why as human beings, we must acknowledge and recognise the difference before the pandemic

“When people take life for granted, life will also take them for granted,” he said, insisting that people were not cooperating with the government in its efforts to protect them from the virus.

Source: Guardian

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