Covid-19: 13 Imo lawmakers test positive

About 13 out of the 27 members of the Imo State House of assembly have allegedly tested positive for coronavirus.

However, Chief Press Secretary to the speaker, Emma Ahaneku, while confirming the result said only three of the lawmakers were tested positive.

Ahaneku said the tests were conducted on members and staff as well as aides of the lawmakers on Monday and the results, he said, were still being awaited.

Chairman of task force on COVID-19, Maurice Iwu, had, in a press conference last week, announced that a lawmaker tested positive for the virus.

The lawmaker, according to Iwu, is presently in isolation with his wife.

He also announced that, while all the lawmakers go on isolation, the House will be adjourning its sitting for two weeks to enable the team fumigate the Assembly complex.

In view of the positive cases recorded in the state, Iwu announced that the committee will embark on contact tracing to ascertain those who might have contacted the virus.

“We have collected samples from all the lawmakers and their aides, we shall also commence contact tracing and while the House members are in isolation, it will be shutdown for two weeks to enable us fumigate the complex,” Iwu said.

In a related development, 49 health workers in various health facilities in Enugu State have allegedly tested positive for coronavirus. This is as the government said the health workers have continued to do their best in the prevailing circumstances to deliver on their mandates.

The state, yesterday, confirmed 68 new cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing its total caseload to 144.

The identities of the personnel and the facilities where they worked were not made public but Daily Sun gathered that about three private hospitals had been shut in the state following allegations of COVID-19 cases.

Some health professionals and federal health institutions in the state cutting across doctors and nurses were also said to have contracted the virus.

A statement by the Ministry of Health, however, said the number of active cases was 110, while 29 patients have been discharged and five died.

Commissioner for Health, Ikechukwu Obi, has restated the government’s resolve to continue to identify cases with testing and contact tracing, as well as decontaminating homes, workplaces or hospitals where identified cases and their contacts had been.