An occurrence of coronavirus has resurfaced the Cross River State, a case said to involved a Chinese national, who worked with Lafarge and flew into the country on March 17, 2026, before taking ill.
Penpushing reports that Commissioner for Health in the state, Dr Henry Ayuk, made this known at a press conference held on Tuesday in Calabar, adding that the Chinese’ case became worse at the medical facility of his office and had to be taken to the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH).
The commissioner explained that at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH), his samples were taken and all protocols followed; it was subsequently confirmed that he had symptoms of coronavirus.
Penpushing further reports that, the commissioner, however, informed that the patient is responding to treatment as at the time of filing this report
The commissioner asserted that the Ministry of Health had, however, been repositioned by the current administration, to handle and manage any situation – diseases or epidemic outbreaks, stressing that unfortunately, there have been silent infections and clear cases from time to time.
“We are, however, happy to report that he is doing well. But we are determined that for every ailment, every disease or outbreak, if it is identified here in the state, there should be no alarm’, he stated.
“The state will do well in terms of surveillance or containment of an outbreak. Whatever it is, we will do our best to contain it. So, there is no alarm. When this case was reported in about three or four days ago, we decided to be careful to confirm and ensure that the processes involved with identifying and confirming every case of COVID-19, are duly followed. The protocols have been followed and confirmed that a 53-year-old Chinese who work in Akamkpa Local Government Area of the state has COVID-19,” he said.
Penpushing also reports that, the state epidemiologist, Inyang Ekpenyong on her part announced that in response to the case, the state emergency response unit had been activated, pointing out that there was currently an ongoing contact tracing and line listing of those the Chinese may have been in contact with.
The epidemiologist while noting the last case of confirmed case of coronavirus in Cross River to be in 2022, however, feared that the Chinese may have contacted the virus here in Nigeria.
“The incubation period for this virus is usually between two to 14 days, but the Chinese flew into Nigeria from China on 17 March and started developing the symptoms on 10 April. This is well beyond the 14 days incubation period. Like I said, we are doing the line listing of those he may have come in contact with, as part of our containment efforts’.
“We have also activated the emergency response center and deployed rapid response teams to Akamkpa, where the victim works.There is no way we can stop this disease, but we can stop the disease outbreak. It will be wrong not to contain or manage it by ensuring that people do not die,” she stated.
Penpushing reports that in similar vein, Dr Yewande Olatunde, and the World Health Organisation(WHO) coordinator in Cross River State, stated that the disease was still around, stressing that there is need to explore all preventive measures to protect everybody.
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