The Edo State Government has said that with the ramping up of screening and testing activities across various locations in the state, there is likelihood for increased confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) in the state.

The government said the screening and testing activities would provide the state with the correct picture of the trend of spread of the virus and impact of its strategy to contain the pandemic in the state.

Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Communication Strategy, Mr. Crusoe Osagie, said the state government is bracing up to get a clearer sense of the COVID-19 outbreak in the state, which is why it has adopted a strategy that would ascertain the spread of the virus among the state’s population, so as to better calibrate its intervention programme.

According to him, “In furtherance of the state government’s commitment to achieve a better understanding of the outbreak of COVID-19 in our state, we have undertaken to grab the bull by the horns and conduct a blitz-styled screening and testing exercise. This would throw up the number of infected persons in the population so that we respond rapidly to ensure we do not record fatalities anymore in the state.”

“At the moment, screening and testing is ongoing in the 18 Local Government Areas (LGA), while mobile post screening exercise has kicked off in Oredo LGA. With these, we are closing in with testing from different fronts. As these are happening, samples are being collected and sent to the testing centres in Irrua and Benin. We expect that more confirmed cases would be reported as a result of these,” he said.

He noted that designated Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs)  and private hospitals in local government areas have been certified to conduct screening.