‘We’ll do a headcount’ — Osun reacts to reports of patients escaping from isolation centre

The Osun government says it is about doing a headcount in order to know the true situation of things at the isolation centre in the state.

There are reports that six patients escaped from General Hospital, Ejigbo, where those suspected of contracting coronavirus are being kept.

Speaking with TheCable, Ismail Omipidan, chief press secretary to the governor, said when he saw the report of patients fleeing the isolation centre, the first thing he did was to call one of the numbers on a list of “escapee patients” circulating on social media.

He said the person whom he spoke with confirmed being at the isolation centre.

“I can’t confirm the report that some persons have escaped from the isolation centre. We are about doing a headcount. I spoke with the commissioner for information on this issue,” he said.

“There are currently 20 coronavirus cases in Osun and 18 of this figure are from the 127 returnees from Ivory Coast.

“They claimed they were from Osun and when His Excellency, Gov Oyetola, got that information, he reached out to his Ogun state counterpart to provide security for the returnees to get here and the Ogun state government graciously did that.

“However, when the returnees got here and we profiled them, we discovered that not all of them are from Osun. Some are from Kwara, Oyo, Ekiti, Edo and Anambra.

“We decided to keep them in our holding facility here in Osun in good faith. Those with the disease could transmit it if they are allowed to go to their various states, that’s why we made sure that they did not leave.”

Asked if the facility is conducive, Omipidan said: “The hospital where they are kept is newly built. It’s a new facility.”

As of 10:40pm on Friday, there were 210 cases of coronavirus in the country, 25 recoveries and four deaths.

Lagos has the highest number of 109, followed by Abuja with 41 and Osun with 22.

Editor’s note: This picture was used for illustrative purposes