Akwa-Ibom State government has discharged four COVID-19 patients from the isolation centre at the Ibom Specialist Hospital in Uyo, the state capital, after testing negative twice.

This was disclosed on Sunday by the Commissioner for Health and COVID-19 Incident Manager in the state, Dominic Ukpong, while briefing journalists at the Ibom Multi-Specialty Hospital, Uyo.

Ukpong said the confirmation followed the release of five results of the thirty-one samples that were sent to the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) by the Akwa Ibom State COVID-19 Management Committee.

“We recently tested 31 patients and we have started getting the results. The final results will be coming this evening. We’ve got five results so far and of the five results, four are actually negative, so we discharged them,” Ukpong said.

The health commissioner added that it is the wish of the state that the remaining results will be more of negatives, so as to encourage a return to normalcy in the state.

He warned commercial transporters against sharing of facemasks which they allegedly hand out to passengers to use while onboard their vehicles and retrieve them upon disembarking so as to be used by another passenger.

Ukpong said the sharing of facemasks is dangerous and unacceptable, and urged members of the public to avoid the practice. (Channels TV)