About three years after the last case was reported, COVID-19, which is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, resurfaced in Cross River State, according to the state Commissioner for Health, Dr Henry Ayuk.
At the end of 2023, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control reported 267,188 in Nigeria since the index case was reported on 27 February 2020, while there were 3,155 fatalities.
The News Agency of Nigeria says that the reported case involved a Chinese national, who worked with Lafarge and flew into the country on 17 March before taking ill.
Ayuk explained that the victim’s condition worsened at his office’s medical facility and that he had to be taken to the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH).
He explained that at the UCTH, his samples were taken and all protocols followed, adding that it was subsequently confirmed that the victim had symptoms of COVID-19.
‘We are, however, happy to report that he is doing well’, the commissioner said.
Ayuk said that the Ministry of Health had been repositioned by the current administration, to handle and manage diseases or epidemic outbreaks.
According to him, unfortunately, there have been silent infections and clear cases from time to time.
‘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.
‘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.
The state’s epidemiologist, Dr Inyang Ekpenyong, announced that, in response to the case, its emergency response unit had been activated.
She said that there is ongoing contact tracing and a list of those the Chinese might have been in contact with.
While noting the last confirmed case of COVID-19 in Cross River to be in 2022, the epidemiologist, however, feared that the Chinese might have contracted 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-day incubation period. As 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 centre 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.
Similarly, the World Health Organisation Coordinator in the state, Dr Yewande Olatunde, said that the disease was still around.
‘We must explore all preventive measures to protect ourselves’.
Source: NAN
