Press Release

The second case of the dreaded Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), recorded in Kebbi State, who absconded from the hospital, is dead, accoridng to the Health Commissioner, Alhaji Jaafaru Mohammed.

Mohammmed, disclosed this in Birnin Kebbi, Saturday, when he gave a situation report of the State Task Force on the pandemic in the state.

He said,” the second case was a patient from the Federal Medical Centre, Birnin Kebbi. He was a 60 year old man, a known diabetic and hypertensive patient.

” He was brought to the Centre from the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital ( UDUTH), Sokoto, by his relatoves.

” After reviewing the case by a Consultant, COVID-19 was suspected and our Rapid Response Team swung into action.”

According to the Health Commissioner, his samples were taken on the 25th of April, 2020, but, he regrettably absconded before he was taken to the Isolation Centre.

He lamented that, the paitient died at home on the 26th of April ,2020.

Mohammed averred,” the corpse was taken to UDUTH mortuary, as against the earlier information that, it was taken to Benue State for burial.

” On the 29th of April, 2020,the result turned out to be positive and the Contacts Tracing Team, swung into action.”

The Commissioner disclosed that, rhe Team had traced twelve close contacts and seventeen other contacts were traced.

” Their samples have been taken to the reference laboratory in UDUTH,Sokoto, while the Sokoto State Epidomologist and the Management of UDUTH were contacted,” Mohammed,further explained.

He appealed to the people of the state to remain calm , as everything humanly possible was being done by the Task Force, other relevant health professionals and stakeholders, to contain the spread of the Disease.

Mohammed also stated that, the Task Force has tecnical support from the Nigeria Centre For Diseases Control (NCDC), in this direction.

In the same vein, the Commissioner disclosed that, the Sokoto Reference Laboratory has been activated at UDUTH, adding,” we are going to reduce the turn around time of the delay of collecting the results of samples.”

Signed :
YAHAYA SARKI
Special Adviser ( SA) Media to Kebbi Governor
2/5/2020