• Father too COVID-19 positive
A mother of two who recently tested positive for coronavirus has refused to part with her one year old lady, after her first child, a three-year-old girl also tested to the deadly virus.
The husband of the woman too has tested positive for COVID-19, and both have been relocated to an isolation centre where she currently breastfeeds her baby.
The latest result of their three-year-old girl made it the eight case of COVID-19 in Ebonyi State, as disclosed by the state governor, David Umahi, who expressed worry over the mother’s refusal to release her baby for test and her decision to continue to breastfeed her despite her status.
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Governor Umahi, who made the disclosure while addressing the people of Ebonyi on the state’s broadcast stations after the Security/Covid-19 Committee meeting on Wednesday, said, the little girl is one of the two children of a couple confirmed COVID-19 positive last week.
He said the child tested positive on May 11.
Governor Umahi, who bemoaned the parents refusal to release the second child, and decided to continue to breastfeed him in their isolation room, said: “As of today, we have a total of eight cases. Three of the cases are very sympathetic because it involves a man and the wife. The man and the wife have two little children, one is a year plus, the other one is three years.
“Then we tested the man and the woman. In fact, we took the woman for test, and her husband followed to support his wife and we tested them and both of them became positive. Now, that is the 6th and 7th cases.”
“On 11th of this month, one of the kids, the three year old tested positive, now, we are left with the little child of a year and half. The doctors have been battling with the situation because the child that tested negative is still sucking breast and the doctors have persuaded both the father and the mother to isolate the little child since that child tested negative twice.”
“We even promised that the state will support the little child if they can bring a child caregiver or we provide one but they have held on to the child.”
“Even, through our CCT monitor, we can see them remove the child’s dress and then start breastfeeding him. We don’t know what to do in that kind of circumstance,” Umahi said.
To protect the state from the influx of people from the neighbouring Enugu State to Ebonyi State, Governor Umahi said, himself and his Énugu counterpart, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, are planning to erect a fence at the border separating the two states.
“I spoke with Enugu governor and we agreed to share the building of gates together and it is still on my mind to build gates at our borders so that when we lock it, we just go home. We will build it in such a way that even if you want to go through the bush, you cannot pass.
“I am going to be very strict on these border restrictions. If there were restrictions at the borders, we wouldn’t have even had one case in Ebonyi State and that is the truth,” Governor Umahi said.
