Ekiti COVID-19 molecular lab ready for commissioning – Commissioner

Ekiti COVID-19 molecular lab ready for commissioning – Commissioner

Friday, May 29, 2020 10:07 pm


Governor Kayode Fayemi

Dr Mojisola Yaya-Kolade, the Ekiti Commissioner for Health, says the COVID-19 Molecular Laboratory established to boost the state’s testing capacity for the virus will be commissioned on June 1.

The commissioner, who is also a member of the Ekiti COVID-19 Committee, announced that the state had so far generated N2 million from various court fines imposed on the over 100 COVID-19 lockdown offenders.

Yahaya-Kolade said that the offenders had been arrested and prosecuted since the pandemic broke out in the state.

She was speaking during a news conference on Friday in Ado Ekiti, while giving update on the status of the pandemic in the state.

The commissioner said the laboratory located in the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital would be commissioned by Gov.  Kayode Fayemi.

“We are still perfecting some regulatory procedure with  the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) but everything will be fine-tuned before June 1.

“We have 20 COVID-19 cases so far, two are still active,  we have recorded two deaths and 16 have been treated with investigational drugs and discharged,” she said.

The commissioner said fighting the coronavirus was draining the state financially rather than benefiting from it as alleged in some quarters.

The State Coordinator of the Taskforce and Director General, Office of Transformation, Strategy and Delivery, Prof.  Bolaji Aluko said security was still tight at the border towns, adding that the state had not recorded serious incursion through the borders in recent times.

Aluko said that quarantine centres in all the 16 local government areas of the state were currently empty, adding the borders were very secured.

The Commissioner for Environment, Mr Gbenga Agbeyo, said the government had undertaken the fumigation of all major towns across the three senatorial districts in the state to curtail the spread of COVID- 19.

“To ensure that we have a healthy environment, the government has declared that all Ekiti residents must observe the monthly environmental programme of Saturday, May 30 to make our state clean,’’ he said.

The Senior Special Assistant on Public Health to the Governor, Dr Jimlas Ogunsakin said that sensitisation on the dangers of COVID-19 was still being intensified across the 133 towns in the state to contain its spread.

Ogunsakin said the disease had not reached the level of community transmission due to the right strategies being put in place by the state government via the COVID- 19 task force.


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