Osun has recorded its highest confirmed cases of the coronavirus infection with 120 new cases in 48 hours.
It recorded 73 cases on Tuesday and 47 cases on Wednesday, according to the data published by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) for both days.
This brings its total case counts to 1,667 since the confirmation of the index case in March 2020.
Reacting on behalf of the government of the State of Osun, the Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Funke Egbemode, in a statement, said the increasing caseload of the State was beginning to mount pressure on healthcare professionals.
She said: “The state government is seriosuly concerned about the consequences of rising numbers of Covid-19 infection recorded in the past few days.
“The new infection tally of the last two days equals over 7% of the entire virus case load the State has recorded since the beginning of the pandemic.
“The high infection rate is beginning to have a significant impact on the health of the population and the safe functioning of the healthcare professionals, areas which this administration made strategic investments in the last two years towards building a healthy state.
“Governor Oyetola has tried to balance its approach to the management of the virus in such ways that the economy does not experience a strain like during the first wave. This explains why government’s management guidelines didn’t close businesses or impose a lockdown. But regrettably, there has been so much disregard for protocols among our people.
“We all must work as together to bring things back under control and begin to enjoy again the gains we once recorded, but this may not be possible without the cooperation of citizens through strict compliance with the non-pharmaceutical protocols specified by the government.
“We wish to reiterate that the second wave of the virus is deadlier than the first, and that the B117 strain – a very deadly variant which was first discovered in the United Kingdom – has also been recorded in Osun.
“We urge citizens to take personal responsibility for their safety by complying with all the non-pharmaceutical protocols outlined by the government, to avoid devastating outcomes”, Egbemode stated.
