By Abujah Racheal/ Mohammed Nur
Abuja, Kano, May 15, 2020
The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, on Friday said the epidemic situation in Kano has stabilised, attributing this to the good relationship between the visiting Federal task team and Kano State Task force on COVID-19.
Ehanire said this at the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 daily press briefing in Abuja.
This is as the state Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje said that the state may record a surge in the number of coronavirus (COVID-19) positive cases sequel to the establishment of additional testing centers in the state.
Ganduje stated this at a news conference of the state Task Force on COVID-19, on Friday at the Government House, Kano.
The Minister of Health, who gave his positive feedback at the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 daily press briefing in Abuja said that one manifestation of the stabilization of the situation in Kano is the number of new cases recorded daily as a result of the fact that all labs in Kano are now functioning and clearing the sample backlog, with over 350 tests done daily.
He said that the state government had been doing well in opening up more treatment and isolation centres.
Ehinare said that a strategy document of National Primary Healthcare Development Agency was being developed and repurposed for application to Kano.
He added that it was also applicable to similar high density, high burden metropolis such as Lagos to respond more specifically to the challenges of COVID-19 tracing, tracking, testing, isolation and treatment in congested communities.
The minister said that if implemented, it could go a long way in addressing many challenges looming before the country.
According to him, an innovation of the FMoH Kano task team is the training of journalists on Saturday, aimed at ensuring reporters are in a better position to interpret COVID-19 related data and information.
He added that it would also help them to learn to take necessary infection prevention measures.
Ehinare commended Gov. Ganduje for providing necessary support for the federal team to function.
The minister stated that a Federal Ministry of Health team had been assembled to proceed to Sokoto and Borno on fact finding and support missions to engage with state authorities and determine material and technical needs.
He said that the most immediate probability is the prioritisation of these states for the deployment of repurposed Gene-Xpert machines as soon as it started to receive the cartridges in a few weeks to bring speed to testing.
In his address, Director-General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, spoke on the “New Normal” Masks, Hygiene and Distancing.
Ihekweazu highlighted the need for the proper use of face masks in limiting spread of COVID-19.
“Face masks are an additional layer of protection and should never be reused or shared with others,” he said.
Meanwhile, National Coordinator, PTF, Dr Sani Aliyu, while speaking on the need to avoid stigmatising patients, said stigmatization undermines every effort to contain and defeat the pandemic.
Aliyu said that infected persons should not be stigmatized.
The News Agency of Nigeria(NAN), reports that 193 new cases were confirmed on May 14 in 15 states.
The states were Lagos (58), Kano (46), Jigawa (35), Yobe (12), FCT (9), Ogun (7), Plateau (5), Gombe (5) Imo (4), Edo (3), Kwara (3), Borno (3), Bauchi (1), Nasarawa (1) and Ondo (1).
This brought the total number of confirmed cases in Nigeria to 5,162 in 34 states and the FCT.
Till date, 1180 patients have been treated and discharged from hospital care and 167 deaths have sadly been recorded.
The case gender ratio remains about 70 per cent to 30 percent for men and women, respectively, while case fatality hovers around 3 percent.
A steady rise in these figures is what we envisage with more diligent testing, treatment, isolation and tracing.
Ability and capacity to keep up and align these activities with each other will determine the course of events as time goes on.
Gov. Ganduje, at the news conference at the Government House, Kano said that plans had been concluded to set up additional testing centres in the 36 far distant local government areas in the state.
“We must open more testing centres in the 36 distant local government areas. We will keep on planning ahead, we need to be proactive.
“We will make sure that all the institutions are put in place so that when the time comes, we will not be taken unawares,” he said, adding that more efforts would be galvanized to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ganduje further said that his administration would encourage partnership with the Kano Against COVID-19, to enhance community enlightenment and other strategies in the fight against the pandemic.
He urged health workers to pay attention to other health challenges facing the people, stressing that his administration had trained hundreds of health personnel to fight the pandemic and tackle other health challenges in the state.
Also speaking, the chairman of the state’s Task Force on COVID-19, Alhaji Nasiru Gawuna, who is also the deputy governor of the state, reminded the people that testing positive for COVID-19, was not a death sentence.
He noted that what remains important was for the people to strictly adhere to instructions given by health professionals on how best to prevent the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.
On his part, the Coordinator of the Kano Response Team, Dr Tijani Hussaini, decried the non compliance of some of the suspected COVID-19 cases, who declined divulging information on their status.
Hussaini said that the Task Force was confronted with the challenge of getting some of the suspected cases to go for testing and treatment during contact tracing.
He said that some of the suspected cases outrightly denied contacts with infected persons or refused to divulge information on their health status.
