A 27-year old American from Richmond, Virginia, has died in Ekiti state, Nigeria after suffering from suspected COVID-19.
The government of Ekiti, in a statement, on Thursday, March 19, 2020 said a driver has also tested positive for coronavirus after coming into contact with the patient.
Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Mojisola Yaya-Kolade, did not give the name of the American in a statement in Ado-Ekiti, the capital of the southwestern state.
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According to her, a 38-year-old Ekiti indigene, who drove the American who arrived the country through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos from Richmond, Virginia, United States and his 31-year-old Nigerian caregiver, from Lagos to Ibadan and Ado-Ekiti, tested positive for COVID-19.
He has been placed in isolation, she added.
The Ekiti indigene is one of the five new COVID-19 cases announced yesterday in Abuja by Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire.
The commissioner added that the test on the American, who took ill a few days after arriving the Ekiti State capital from Ibadan, Oyo State, and later died, was “inconclusive” But his female care-giver’s result was negative. She is however to remain in isolation for now.
Yaya-Kolade explained that the American and the care-giver were driven from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos to Ibadan by the 38-year-old man , where they stayed for two weeks before arriving Ado Ekiti on March 13.
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She added that the American was admitted into an private hospital from where he was rushed to a tertiary hospital where he died of complications of a yet-to-be determined illness.
The commissioner said: “We have commenced the process of contact tracing, working with the Federal Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO) following the team’s itinerary since they landed in Nigeria on the 3rd of March 2020.
“We have also contacted the Oyo State Government since it was recorded that they stayed in Ibadan for two weeks before arriving Ekiti State.”
“The confirmed case is very stable and not showing any symptoms while NCDC will repeat the test for the caregiver who is also in self-isolation.”
