Rivers State Governor, Nyeson Wike, has now accepted the responsibility and reality of having a coronavirus case under his care as the chief executive.
He has also given details of the first case.
Only on Wednesday, Wike, in desperation to prevent the source from entering Rivers, stopped international and national flights to the state, while also closing all borders.
Confirming the first case on Thursday, he, in a state broadcas, said the patient was a 19 year old female model from Edo State who resides in Port Harcourt.
According to the governor, the patient’s travel history shows she travelled to France, Italy and Greece before returning to Port Harcourt on the 16th of March, 2020.
The governor said it was quite unfortunate that the virus still found its way into the state despite several measures put in place to prevent it.
The governor, however, assured the people that intensive line listing and contact tracing of all those she came in contact with had commenced in full force.
He added that samples had been collected from high risk contacts for further evaluations while decontamination process has also commenced.
His broadcast:
It is however unfortunate that despite all the preventive measures we put in place, our state has recorded a positive case as confirmed by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). The positive case is a 19-year-old female model from Edo State who resides in Port Harcourt. Her travel history reveals that she travelled to France, Italy and Greece before returning to Port Harcourt on the 16thof March, 2020.
On arrival at Port Harcourt, she was asymptomatic and commenced self isolation in her family house before her samples were collected and sent to the Reference Laboratory, Irruan in Edo State.
The patient is presently being managed at the State Treatment Centre and she is doing excellently well” he said
