Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has tested negative for COVID-19 following the release of the result of his second test for the virus on Sunday, April 5, 2020.
This was made known in a message, which Makinde personally posted on his Twitter handle, @seyiamakinde, at 11:21p.m.
The new result came barely a week after he tested positive for the coronavirus, which was released on Monday March 30, 2020. Immediately, he went into self-isolation and participated in some radio programmes from self-isolation through telephone conversations.
In the tweet, Makinde appreciated a former chief medical director, University College Hospital, Ibadan Prof Temitope Alonge , who chaired in acting capacity the Oyo State COVID-19 Taskforce when he was in self-isolation, adding that he would resume as the chairman of the taskforce on Monday April 6, 2020.
His words: “I am deeply moved by your prayers and support throughout this period. I am so thankful. This evening (April 5), I received my second negative test result for COVID-19. I especially thank Prof Temitope Alonge, who acted in my stead as head of the Oyo State COVID-19 taskforce.
“I am also grateful to all members of the taskforce for their cooperation during this time. I will be resuming my responsibility as head of the Task Force from tomorrow (today).”
On Monday March 31, Makinde had tweeted: “I just received my COVID-19 confirmation test result. It is POSITIVE. I am asymptomatic and will continue to self-isolate. I have designated Prof Temitope Alonge, former Chief Medical Director of the University College, Ibadan, as the Head of COVID-19 Task Force, while I recover fully.”
Makinde, on Tuesday March 31, spoke from the isolation, during a live telephone interview on a special programme of Fresh FM 105.9, Ibadan, known as the COVID-19 Situation Room, anchored by an ace broadcaster, Isaac Brown, saying he had not been showing symptoms of COVID-19 and that his body temperature was normal at 36.5°C.
A question was posed to him on the symptoms he had been experiencing on COVID-19 and he responded by saying he’s asymptomatic and that he had with him a digital infrared thermometer that could read his temperature and at the same time articulate the result. He did it immediately and the thermometer read out the result by saying 36.5°C.