COVID-19: Gov Ayade gives latest update on Cross River

The Cross River State Government has insisted that it has no COVID-19 case, saying that it has nothing to gain by hiding cases of infections in the state.

Governor Ben Ayade disclosed this on Thursday while briefing newsmen and members of the state’s COVID-19 Response Team at the Government House, Calabar.

He said: “If you have the virus and pretend not to have it, you will only have mass deaths in your state.

“As a state, we were the first to lock down our boundaries.

“So for some people to doubt the credibility of our COVID-19 free status is to imply that all the efforts of the state were not noticed.

“However, following the lifting of the ban on interstate movement by the federal government, all our boundaries are now opened.

“Residents of Cross River must know that we no longer have control over our boundaries, we have surrendered to the supremacy of the federal government and opened our boundaries.”

Ayade added: “Cross River that is COVID-19 free will now have an avalanche of cases, I see it coming, therefore, with this message, it means our response team would be back on the road because as long as our boundaries are opened, our eyes will be open.”

Meanwhile, Nigeria recorded a total of 26,484 confirmed COVID-19 cases as at Wednesday night.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, confirmed 790 new cases across the country.