COVID-19: Death toll now 33 in Edo

Edo Government on Thursday said it had recorded about 33 deaths so far with unvaccinated persons since the third wave of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the state.

Dr Ebomwonyi Osagie, Head of the state COVID-19 case management, made this known during a news briefing in Benin.

Osagie noted that the state had so far vaccinated about 93,000 persons representing two per cent of the population, adding that the target was to the vaccine at least 10 per cent by the end of 2021.

He decried the non-adherence among residents to the NCDC COVID-19 protocols and guidelines, saying the recalcitrance had further compounded the COVID-19 challenge in the state.

Osagie urged residents to leverage the availability of the vaccines in the state to get vaccinated against the virus in order to stay alive.

“Edo State in the last 24 hours recorded three more COVID-19-related deaths and 49 new confirmed cases, with a case positivity rate of 13.4 per cent.

“We also recorded 10 recoveries, with 614 actives cases that are being managed at various treatment and isolation centres across the state,” he said.

He, however, called on all residents, who were administered the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine to come out for the second dose to get full protection against the virus.

Osagie also called on others who had yet to be vaccinated to come out and get the vaccination stressing that the vaccines were safe and effective.