A viral voice note on WhatsApp recently claimed that Access Bank in Onne, Rivers State has been shut down due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) infection.
The voice note, made by an unidentified person, was later shared on Instagram by a Social Media Influencer, Tunde Ednut via his account: @tundeednut on June 29.
The post has garnered 287,953 views; 26,033 likes with 1,691 comments as of 3:00pm on Friday, July 3.
It was claimed that the bank manager tested positive and died. Listen below.
The transcripts of the female voice note reads:
Hello everyone, I hope you are doing well. Please o, abeg! if you don’t have anything to do in the bank, please stay in your house.
Okay, this is what happened, you know the Access Bank branch in Onne. If you are coming into Onne, you will see Fidelity Bank, First Bank, Sterling Bank, Union bank, Polaris bank, then you will see Access Bank and Zenith Bank.
As I speak, NCDC has sealed Access Bank. The bank manager tests positive and he is dead. Everyone working there has been taking to the isolation centre.
According to the Head of Media Relations of the Access Bank Plc, Abdul Moyo, out of the three claims in the voicenote, only two were true.
Moyo confirmed that it was indeed true that a staff of the bank in Onne community of Elem local government area of Rivers state in Nigeria tested positive for coronavirus. He also added that the Onne branch has been shut down but the deceased wasn’t the bank’s manager.
“We have received unfortunate confirmation of the loss of our staff who until his death worked at our Onne Branch, Rivers State.”
The bank, however, assured the community that several measures have been put in place by the bank to minimise the spread of the COVID-19.
“In light of this, we have activated our COVID-19 precaution response plan as part of measures to help contain the virus. The branch has been shut down for immediate disinfection and will only be reopened once we certify that it is safe enough for services to resume”, the statement released by the bank read.
Freelanews can also confirm that the River State governor, Nyesom Wike, had on June 20, ordered the lockdown of Onne community of Eleme and Bonny LGAs of the state to check the spread of COVID-19 in the areas.
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