BY AUSTIN AJAYI – Ten athletes have so far returned positive for the feared Coronavirus (COVID-19) in tests carried out at the ongoing 20th National Sports Festival (NSF) tagged “Edo 2020” in Benin, the Edo State capital
The figure was confirmed to the media by Incident Manager COVID-19 Response, Edo State, Dr Andrew Obi, who also revealed that seven of the affected persons have already been moved to Stella Obasanjo Isolation Centre for prompt medical attention.
Dr Obi however assured that the Festival’s medical team is currently working round the clock attending to patients in order to nurse them back to their fitness level.
He also explained that the remaining three athletes, who tested positive earlier on Sunday morning, were still being kept at Hall 2 centre where officials are conducting the tests.
“So far, we have ten persons tested positive and seven of them have been moved to the Stella Obasanjo Isolation Centre.
“They will be there taking their doses until they’re declared fit enough to get back into the public”, Dr Obi told BSN Sports
Meanwhile, reports said athletes and officials of Team Kogi conducted their Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests before storming Edo State for the sports carnival.
Though the exercise goes against the Governor Yahaya Bello’s strong view that there is no COVID-19 in Kogi state, the athletes hinted that they were forced by officials to undergo the PCR tests in line with existing COVID-19 protocols for the games.
But the good news is that none of the athletes who took the test returned a positive result.
Originally, the National Sports Festival was slated for March 2020, but the COVID-19 outbreak forced the rescheduling and suspension of all sporting activities to check the deadly virus spread across the country.
Subsequently, the fiesta suffered several other deferrals due to the global pandemic and it was moved to December 3 – 18, 2020 and later to January 2021.
Again, the Festival was moved from February 14th to February 24th 2021, before the April 2-14, 2021 date was eventually chosen.
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to officially declare open Sports Festival on Tuesday, April 6, 2021
According to the Local Organising Committee (LOC), the official opening ceremony by Mr President would be done virtually four days after the fiesta commenced.
