Palpable fear has enveloped the entire Okitipupa Local Government Area of Ondo State as an administrative staff of the Ondo State University of Technology, OSUTECH, Okitipupa tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday.

The index case in the town is reported to have traveled to Lagos recently to buy stuffs for his boutique where he sells fashionable clothes and accessories, even in spite of the inter-state lockdown and hundreds of road blocks between Ore and Shagamu, mounted by army, FRSC, Police and Civil Defence.

The news went viral late Wednesday and by early Thursday it has spread like the wild fire during the harmattan season as concerned citizens made frantic telephone calls to their loved ones to be wary of the spread of the deadly pandemic.

The Crest gathered that officers of the NCDC hit the town with their ambulance on Wednesday and ferried the patient to Akure, the state capital immediately while his close friends and neighbours were immediately asked to embark on self-isolation after their samples were taken.

The index case, according to sources in town, is a casanova  and club rocker always found with chains of friends  who  patronize beer parlours  and pepper soup joints  in the rocky town.

The dilemma since Wednesday has been how to trace all those that have come in contact with the patient since his arrival from Lagos, especially those who have visited his boutique to buy items.

A staff of OSUTECH who spoke to our reporter says the patient has not come to the campus in the last three weeks while also blaming the greedy security men who collect five hundred naira from travelers along the Benin-Shagamu Expressway in spite of inter-state lockdown by the PTF and NCDC.

The staff calls on the Ondo State governor, Arakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu to immediately declare a total lockdown in the Local Government Area.