By PETER DADA, Akure

The COVID-19 team of the Ondo State Government has arrested a patient in Oja Oba Area of Akure, the Ondo State capital on Sunday.

The patient was said to have escaped from an isolation centre in Imo State and ran to Ondo before she was caught.

The Ondo State Commissioner for Health, Dr Wahab Adegbenro, told journalists in Akure on Sunday.

According to the commissioner, the female patient was “originally diagnosed for the virus in faraway Imo State but escaped to Ondo State without receiving treatment.”

He explained that, after the escape of the patient, both Imo and Ondo governments mounted surveillance on her, and “she was eventually picked up from where she was selling second-hand wares popularly called tokunbo at the market in Akure.”

Adegbenro also stated that contact tracing of the patient’s family, friends, and neighbours had begun.

He urged all who might have transacted business with the patient to report for diagnosis.

Adegbenro appealed to the residents of Ondo State to stay at home unless it was absolutely necessary for them to go out, noting that community transmission of the coronavirus had become a reality in the state. (The PUNCH)