Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi state Thursday said he will close down worship centers, markets for non-compliance of Covid-19 protocols.
Umahi had before now warned traders at the International market and religious leaders that the only condition for the places to be operational was by observing every preventive rule of Covid-19.
But the governor in a state wide broadcast in Abakaliki said he would close the market for seven days and warned religious leaders to keep the agreement they reached before reopening the worship centers.
Umahi, giving the analysis of COVID-19 in the state said that the total cases recorded so far are 162, and that 72 have been discharged, then 90 were still receiving treatments.
He said, “So far we have recorded a total of 162 cases we have discharged 72 persons who tested positive, which means that technically we have about 90 people that we are still nursing back to negative.99 percent of these people showed no symptoms as only about 4 percent showed symptoms.
“We are not disturbed about the spike,I strongly believe that any state that does the number of tests we do must surely see a spike. We have entered into community infection now, we are not afraid and I continuously tell my people not to be afraid.
“If you test positive, follow the protocols and submit yourself,we have two kinds of treatment now, there are some people we isolate in their homes, if you have a private room for yourself were your family will not be and educate families members to make sure you are isolated and then we will have our medical personnel to ensure they are visiting you. It has worked for us, especially some of our big men.
“The rest we also have them in centers like the unity square, the virology center and now the Elunwovu general hospital,Iboko.
“We are working to renovate the 13 general hospitals in the state, presently we test 100 persons in a day, we have two test machines now,presently we are going to deploy the se one one today. And our test results are still about two in every 100 tested.
“We have to observe protocols to see that there is no movement outside with a nose mask. I’m going to set up a special governor task force who will go round and do arrest of those not wearing a nose mask. We are determined that between this week and next week,we may declare a seven-day closure on the international market, because up till now there is no compliance, the seven days is to give them warning before we finally close it down finally. The same thing with places of worship.
“I continue to say that every man doesn’t have the same fate, let us not attack the covid-19 with only faith, for faith without work is dead. I wouldn’t be happy if we visit any church and see people without face masks.
“I want the CAN leadership and other religious bodies to hear us. We signed an agreement before we opened up worship centers for operations. We will not be happy to see non-compliance from them again. And I want our religious leaders to know they have failed on their promise.”
