John Charles
The Benue State Government has described a media report on fresh cases of COVID-19 in the state as false.
The report was credited to the World Health Organisation and the announcement about the 25 new cases was made at a day Civil Society Organisations, and Media Engagement/Orientation meeting on COVID-19 Ramp up in Makurdi on Tuesday.
The State Commissioner for Health, Yanma Ortese, while speaking with our correspondent on the phone, said that the figure given by WHO was between January and April 2023.
He said, “The truth of the matter is that the representative of the World Health Organisation was misrepresented.
“Earlier, this year, there was a survey conducted by Apin Initiative in Nigeria, they got people screened for tuberculosis, Human Immunodeficiency Virus and by extension, they added COVID-19, and 25 tested positive for COVID-19.
“But since then, I mean May 2023 till now, we have not recorded any. So, for somebody to now say in December that there was a fresh case of COVID-19 is not the best.
“The woman who said that has said that she was being misrepresented.”
Meanwhile, the Commissioner revealed that as of December 10, 2023, the state attained 56.6 per cent COVID-19 vaccination coverage.
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