Ekiti State Commissioner for Health, Dr Mojisola Yaya-Kolade, said on Monday that two children were among the four persons who tested positive for COVID-19 in the state at the weekend.

They are among the four contacts of the 45-year-old medical doctor who contracted the disease from a patient, who is now dead, that he conducted surgery on.

Yaya-Kolade, who spoke in Ado Ekiti while giving an update on COVID-19 situation in the state, said, “In the four new cases, there are two children of ages 10 and nine who must have contracted it through the 45-year old doctor, who was the only active case in the state before the new cases.

“They are all in the state isolation centre. They are responding, doing well, stable and in high spirit.”

The commissioner said the state government had started tracing their 58 contacts, adding, “Samples have been taken and results are being awaited while the contacts tracing also continues.”

She allayed fears of community transmission of COVID-19, saying, “We know where the contacts are from.”

Meanwhile, the coordinator of Ekiti State COVID-19 Task Force and Director General, Office of Strategic Transformation and Delivery, Prof. Bolaji Aluko, has debunked news making the rounds that the state government had returned the 1,800 bags of rice alleged to have been adulterated to the Federal Government.

Aluko said that rather, the 1800 bags of rice donated to Ekiti by Federal Government would be sorted to be able to separate the expired from consumable ones.

“We have not rejected or returned any rice to Federal Government. The state will do sorting and separate the bad ones out of the consignment,” he clarified.

Aluko said the state would continue to distribute food supplements and other protective materials to citizens to help curb the menace of COVID-19.