Edo Government says it has cleared and discharged 3,769 suspected coronavirus (COVID-19), cases across the 18 Local Government Areas (LGAs), who have completed the compulsory 14-day follow up and tested negative.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr Patrick Okundia revealed this while addressing newsmen in Benin on Saturday.
He explained that government has also embarked on contact-tracing of 4,327 persons with suspected COVID19 cases.
Okundia said the cleared cases comprised of 347 Persons of Interests (POI) and 3,422 others that had various degrees of contacts with confirmed cases.
He said the state had so far recorded 1593 confirmed cases, 7187 suspected cases, 57 deaths and 929 discharged persons, adding that the government had also taken serious steps to contain the pandemic across all communities to protect the people.
He expressed disappointment over provision of wrong information, such as names, addresses and phone numbers by by residents in the ongoing massive testing for the virus in the state, saying the action was hampering government’s efforts at containing the pandemic.
The commissioner identified early testing as essential in curbing spread of the disease.
He said: “The Edo State Government encourages all residents with symptoms of the disease to come out for testing and treatment as early detection is key to containing the virus. When detected early, a patient’s chance for survival increases.