By Chukwuma Umabo,Ebonyi
A three-year-old child has tested positive for the novel Coronavirus in Ebonyi State, becoming the eighth case recorded in the state.
Governor David Umahi announced this yesterday in a state-wide broadcast after the Security/COVID-19 Committee meeting.
The governor said the child, whose gender was not disclosed, is one of the two children of a couple who tested positive and were confirmed last week.
He said the child tested positive on May 11.
Umahi regretted that the child’s parents had refused to release the second child and continued to breastfeed him in their isolation room.
He said: “As at today, we have a total of eight cases. Three of the cases are very sympathetic because it involves a man and the wife. The man and the wife have two little children: one is a year plus, the other one is three years.
“Then, we tested the man and the woman. In fact, we took the woman and the man followed to perform his role. We tested them and both of them tested positives. Now, that is the sixth and seventh cases.
“On May 11, one of the kids, the three-year-old, tested positive; now left with the little child of a year and half. The doctors have been battling because the child that tested negative is still sucking breast and the doctors have preached everything to the father and the mother to isolate the little child since that child tested negative twice.
“We even promised that the state will support the little child if they can bring the child care or we provide one, but they have held the child.
“Even through our CCT monitor, (we saw that) they remove the child’s shirt and then breastfeed the child. We don’t know what to do in that kind of circumstance,” Umahi said.