Ekiti State Government Wednesday said the person who tested positive for coronavirus in the state may have contracted the virus while driving an American man who died in a hospital in the state.
The 38-year-old Ekiti State indigene man was one of the five confirmed cases announced by Nigeria’s health minister Osagie Ehanire on Wednesday morning.
The man is suspected to have been infected while driving an American Caucasian, male, 27 years old, who was visiting Nigeria from Richmond, Virginia, the USA in the company of his caregiver, a Nigerian female Age 31, of Ekiti origin.“It is important to state that this likely index case was on a short visit and had not been in Ekiti State for up to 72 hours before his death,” Ekiti State Government said in a statement on Wednesday evening.
“The confirmed case is very stable and not showing any symptoms while the National Centre for Disease Control will repeat the test for the caregiver who is also in self-isolation.”
According to the state government, the American male and his Nigerian female caregiver arrived in Nigeria on 3rd March 2020 through Muritala Mohammed International Airport Lagos.
The pair were driven by the confirmed case to Ibadan, where they stayed for two weeks and arrived Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State on 13th March 2020.
The government said the American male fell ill a day after arriving in the state and was taken to a private hospital where he was referred to a tertiary hospital. He later died from complications of his illness.
The hospital authorities alerted the Ekiti State Taskforce on Coronavirus and samples were taken from the American male as well as his two companions.
The test for the male driver came back positive; the test for the female caregiver came back negative while the test for the American male was inconclusive.
The task force, the government said in the statement, has already quarantined the confirmed case on admission in the State Isolation Centre, while the caregiver who tested negative, is presently under observation in self-isolation.
