Kehinde Akinpelu, Ilorin 

The Kwara State Government has said the sudden peak in the number of COVID-19 cases on Monday followed a deliberate effort of the committee to contact-trace and test all persons and health workers that have had contacts with two persons that recently sneaked into the state and tested positive to the virus. 

The government added that all but one of the 23 new cases posted on Monday — the highest in a day since the outbreak — were already in isolation before the test result as they had long been identified as “persons of interest” on account of their close contacts with a pregnant woman who sneaked in from Zamfara and later tested positive. 

The woman was briefly treated at the Ilorin General Hospital and later at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) where she underwent an operation and later tested positive, leading to contact tracing and testing of over 180 people.