Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has disclosed that the state plans to screen over 500,000 citizens across the 18 Local Government Areas of the state within the next few weeks. The screening of the citizens is coning on the heels of the securing of two additional testing facilities at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) and the Stella Obasanjo Hospital, Benin City by the government as part of increased efforts to detect and manage cases of corona virus (COVID-19) in the state. The governor, who said that the government was working assiduously to contain the scourge, urged residents to adhere to directives on good hygiene and safety, including regular washing of the hands, use of sanitizers and observing social distancing. The state Commissioner for Health, Patrick Okundia disclosed that the Edo Government has set up 10 screening centres spread across Oredo Local Government area of the state as a pilot phase to actualise the government’s target of testing 500, 000 persons.
“The government of Edo has placed more emphasis on prevention of the coronavirus disease.
“This decision for screening our citizens came up because of the possibility that a lot of persons may have contracted this virus, but do not have any symptoms.
“This is also evidence from the 14 active cases we have under treatment, they are doing well on medications and their symptoms are going down.
“So, we do not want to miss out on some cases because if you have the virus and are asymptomatic, then you run the risk of you transmitting the disease to others.
“So, the government has decided that we need to encourage screening. As part of that effort, the target is to screen at least 500, 000 Edo residents cutting across the 18 local government areas of the state.
“But we started with the pilot of Oredo Local Government. Today, we have 10 centres for screening for the purpose of screening, six of them are within the state primary health care and four from the private health care facilities.
“These are the names of primary health care centres that have the responsibility of screening our people – Aruogba Primary Healthcare centre, Oko Primary Health Care Centre, Ugbor Primary HealthCare centre, Oredo Primary Health Care Centre.
“Others are New Benin Primary Health Care Centre, St. Philomena Catholic Hospital, Faith Mediplex Hospital, Bethel Faith Hospital and Safe Haven Hospital.
