Edo State has recorded 82 new cases of COVID-19 pandemic and three deaths from the disease in the past 72 hours, even as it recorded 31recoveries from the virus.

State COVID-19 Incident Manager, Dr. Andrew Obi, disclosed this during a meeting of the Emergency Operation Centre (EOC), presided over by Governor Godwin Obaseki.

He said: “In the last 72 hours, we have recorded 82 new coronavirus cases and three new deaths. There were 31 recoveries, while the active cases currently stand at 207.”

Obi restated government’s charge for residents to adhere to the precautionary safety protocols to guard against the spread of the virus, adding that the isolation and treatment centres were actively attending to confirmed cases of the virus.

“In the last seven days, we have collected 1,200 samples from the screening and testing centres across the state. The disease surveillance mechanism was set up during the first wave of the pandemic and we are doing everything possible to ensure that they are adequately supplied with reagents and other materials to ensure quick detection of cases.

“In the last seven days, we have had 176 confirmed cases. We have high case positivity rates in Esan West, Esan Central councils and there have also been 82 recoveries in the last seven days,” he stated.

Stressing that there was need for Edo residents to be cautious, he said it was worrisome that confirmed cases were rising dailyy, noting that the state had recorded 382 confirmed cases from December 1, 2020 when the state started tracking the second wave of the pandemic.