The Governor of the North West Region Adolphe Lele LAfrique has called on the population to limit inter-urban travels and respect preventive measures put in place by the government in order to stop the COVID-19.
He made the call at the weekend as he announced the number of COVID-19 case in the Region have risen two five, in less than a week after the region recorded its first case.
Detailing the cases, Adolphe Lele LAfrique said in a statement that the third person infected of the virus is a woman who had been exposed but according to her was rejected three times in health facilities in Douala before she decided to travel to Bamenda on April 22 in order to take the test.
The Governor added that the woman in question has expressed the wish to get her husband and four children who are in Douala to come over for testing.
However, this will be putting the lives of persons at risk and she has been asked to inform her family to take the test in Douala.
“We have therefore instructed the third case to get her family members tested in Douala and not to try to bring them in Bamenda for testing as she would have loved,” Dr Kingsley Che, North West Regional Delegate of Public Health said.
On the other hand, the fourth and fifth cases are a man and his mother all living in the same house who were exposed after recently hosting visitors from Douala, Adolphe Lele LAfrique, head of the regional COVID-19 pandemic response committee said.
“All five cases are being managed in the appropriate health facility while their contacts including those of the second confirmed COVID-19 case, are presently being traced and their homes disinfected by the Rapid Intervention and Investigation Team of the North West Regional Delegation of Public Health,” Adolphe Lele LAfrique said.
The Regional Delegate of Public Health on his part added that two hotels have been requisitioned in Bamenda to handle the situation.
Threat of New cases looms
Though just five cases have been identified in the region so far, there are fears more cases could pop up in the days ahead as a result of the second case; one of ten members of a family who arrived the Region in a public transport bus on the night of April 17-18.
According to the Governor of the North West Region, they were travelling to the region for a symbolic funeral of their father who had died of COVID-19 in Douala and was immediately buried under strict medical supervision.
After identification at Matazem, at the entrance of the Region, the group headed to Nsongwa for the funeral where a team from the Regional Delegation of Public Health arrived, took away the ten members of the family, collected their samples for testing as they went into self confinement.
It is only on April 23 that the test results were released with one testing positive and the other nine testing negative.
Given that the positive case had come in contact with several persons, the Governor of the North West Region has called on all those who travelled in the 70-seater bus as well as all those who attended the funeral in Nsongwa to come for testing beginning April 24.
Total Mobilisation
With COVID-19 now fully in the North West Regions, authorities and other persons of goodwill have stepped up the fight against the spread of the pandemic by taking certain measures
It is the case with the Bafut Council that handed over health, sanitary kits and other equipment to traditional rulers of the municipality in order to help fight the virus.
The Mayor of Bafut Lawrence Ngwa handed in hand sanitizers, soap, face mask, buckets and bucket taps to the traditional rulers as he outlined to them the measures put in place by the government to prevent the spread of the virus.
Bafut, he said, is gradually recovering from the violence and destruction in the past years and does not need the pandemic to draw the municipality back again. Thus he urged the population to continue respecting the measures put in place by the government to fight the virus.
On his part, the District Medical Officer of Bafut, urged the traditional rulers to ensure their subjects respect basic hygiene rules by constantly washing their hands with running water and soap that will be placed at strategic locations in the municipality.
The fight against the spread of the COVID-19 was equally evident in the Bamenda II municipality last week as the Mayor Peter Chenwi and his team went on the streets to sensitise the population on preventive measures.
With his team, they distributed hand sanitizers, face masks, buckets, tissue paper and soap at the Bamenda Main market as well as at several commercial spots that attract people around the municipality.
A team of medical experts equally accompanied the Mayor on the sensitisation campaign as they taught the population how to wear the face masks and equally urged them not to avoid using just anything that is sold in the market in the name of hand sanitizers. They urged the population to always consult the medical facilities at their disposal in case of any doubts.
JDC TV, Video news 
