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COVID-19: Kwara tests 17,581 persons
By Adekunle Jimoh, Ilorin
Kwara state government at the weekend said it has carried out COVID-19 tests on no fewer than 17, 581 persons.
The state has an estimated total population of 3.6 million.
An epidemiologist at the Ministry of Health Dr. Khadijah Kamaldeen said this in Ilorin, the state capital at a sensitisation workshop for journalists on COVID-19 update across the 16 local G
government areas of the state.
Dr Kamaldeen added the state had equipped12 testing laboratories in all the LGs to cater for the teeming population.
“The testing centres is to afford people to go and test for their status, adding that some LGA have higher burden cases of the Coronavirua than others.
“The state had so far conducted sample test of about 17, 581 samples, with 2,096 confirmed cases as at fourth week of 2021,” she said.
She confirmed that 45 people had so far died of the diseases with 385 active cases.
Kamaldeen explained that Ilorin South and Ilorin West had the highest confirmed cases while Patigi and Lafiagi had no confirmed cases.
She however observed that the lack of cases in these LGAs may be due to low testing rate as these communities were hard to reach areas.
“The data also disclosed women had the highest confirmed cases at 53.6 percent while men are at 46.4 percent. The age range of people with the highest suspected cases are from 25 to 29 years of age,” she said.
The epidemiologist disclosed that the distribution of health care workers who tested positive for COVID-19 by cadre currently stands at 4.5 percent for doctors, 2.8 percent for nurses, 2.4 percent for microbiologist, 0.4 percent for Attendants and 0.0 percent for Physiotherapist.
“Therefore 41 out of the 522 confirmed COVID-19 cases were healthcare workers as at week four of 2021,” she said.
She urged the people to make judicious use of these testing laboratories and get tested for the disease.
Also in her presentation, World Health Organization (WHO) Risk Communicator and Community Engagement, Mrs Fatimah Mustapha, said that COVID-19 had truly shown that the world is a global village.
She observed the pandemic is increasing across the world and Nigeria is no exception while urging people to always adhere to the rules and guidelines against contracting the disease.
Mustapha also emphasised on the need to get tested, adding that knowing one’s status goes a long way to assist people in getting healthcare early.
She noted that the Federal Government is not resting as the first batch of vaccine would soon be arriving the country.
