By Mudiaga Affe
Edo State Government on Friday disclosed that an unvaccinated frontline health worker at the Auchi General Hosptial, in Auchi, Estako West Local Government Area of the state has died of COVID-19.
The death of the 56-year old male nurse, the government added, brought to two, the number of deaths recorded in the state in the last 24 hours, with the total death toll put at 35.
The Permanent Secretary, Edo State Ministry of Health, Dr Osamwonyi Irowa, who made the disclosure at the daily briefing on the activities of COVID-19 Case Management Team.
He said the nurse had underlying ailments that were compounded by the virus, adding the death of the health worker confirmed that nobody has immunity against contracting the virus and the need for all to be vaccinated.
“We confirm to you that we lost a health worker to COVID-19 and, sadly, these persons dying are not vaccinated, including the health worker. Nobody is immune, whether you are a health worker or a non-health worker, everyone is at risk but health workers are more at risk which has just been manifested in one of us.
“We have interrogated our mortalities, we have recorded 35 deaths of both sexes. We realise they had one form of ailment or the other, commonest among them is hypertension and diabetes mellitus,” Irowa said.
The permanent secretary lamented that most of the deaths would have been preventable if the victims had been vaccinated the effect of COVID-19 potentiates the severity of the primary ailments putting the patients at risk.
Irowa also identified late representation of cases to hospitals as one of the factors responsible for the increasing mortality in the management of cases, noting that early diagnosis could lead to proper treatment and minimize deaths.
“Most importantly, we are seeing people dying within 24 hours of presentation. We observed there is late referral even though they are COVID-19 positive, there are things that can be done. We are working on case definitions and early referral in private centres”, he noted.
Irowa described as untrue, the rumour making the rounds on social media that there are contaminated vaccines in the state, which were said to have claimed lives after being administered.
He maintained that such a claim was unfounded, adding that the Case Management had always followed up and managed any case of adverse reactions.
He, therefore, appealed to the residents of the state to get vaccinated, saying that massive awareness and communication collaterals were being deployed to every part of the state to stress the need for vaccination and compliance with all stipulated COVID-19 protocols.
