The Anambra State Commissioner for Health, Dr Vincent Okpala, said about 29 persons consisting of health workers, relations and business partners of the COVID-19 index case in the state have been quarantined and are waiting to be tested.

The commissioner, who spoke to newsmen in Awka, on Monday, on the development, explained how the COVID-19 response team in the state searched for the index case from 8 pm to 3 am, after National Centre for Disease Control contacted the government to reveal that a case has been registered in Anambra.

According to him, “I went with the team to places I ordinarily would not go at that time of the night, and I knocked on a lot of doors to wake people up from sleep to ask about the individual.

“He left the hospital when he should not have left, and usually, while waiting for patient’s result, we keep them in check, but this man eloped even before the result was out, and when I called the doctor managing him, and he told me the man was not in the hospital, we had to go looking for him.

“Presently, the index case is being treated at an isolation centre, and he is receiving the best of treatment ever. He has every facility he needs and is also provided whatever he wants.

“Contact tracing is on vigorously, and we have 29 persons who are contacts of the index case, and they include medical personnel at the hospital where he was being previously managed, his relatives and business associates. Those traced are being closely monitored now, as I speak,” he concluded.