Date: 2020-05-17

The Kwara government says it arrested some COVID-19 patients who attempted to escape from the isolation centre in the state.

In a statement on Friday, Rafiu Ajakaye, chief press secretary to AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq, the governor, said the patients are a part of the cases imported into the state.

He said the patients had intentionally violated the interstate lockdown and travelled into the state.

Ajakaye said the government was able to uncover their escape plan as some of them had already scaled the fence of the isolation centre.

He added that the patients were immediately returned to the isolation centre after their plot was foiled.

"Security has been further beefed up at our isolation centre," he said.

"The government restates that COVID-19 is not a death sentence and there is no reason why anyone would want to escape and put their own lives and the lives of other people at risk."

The state government said it has retrained health workers in the state following the "mishandling of a patient" earlier in the week.

On Tuesday, a driver in the employ of the state unilaterally attended to an "unkempt person" who was evacuated with a COVID-19 ambulance in Ilorin.

Kwara has recorded a total number of 58 confirmed cases of the disease so far.