The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, said the Ministerial Task team report on the mysterious deaths recorded in Kano state in April and early May, which totals 979, shows that between 50-60% of the deaths may have been triggered by or due to COVID-19.
Dr Ehanire revealed this on Monday’s presidential taskforce briefing on COVID-19. He said the the task team’s visit was also extended to fact finding excursions to offer support to five other states.
He added that the federal intervention also helped in stopping infections among health workers in those northern states.
The minister said while more than 150 health workers had been infected at the time of their arrival, there was no report of an infection among health workers who had received training on infection prevention and control, thus restoring confidence.
Meanwhile, it’s now more than 100 days of the coronavirus pandemic in Nigeria, after the index case was recorded on 27th February, 2020.
According to the secretary to the government of the federation, Boss Mustapha, the number of laboratories in the COVID-19 network increased from 2 to 30, with Over 80,000 tests conducted in the country.
Training of over 13,000 health workers have been ramped up, as well as the procurement of personal protective equipment and ventilators across the country.
The number of beds available for isolation and case management has increased from 3000 beds to 5000 beds nationwide.
The PTF also noted that a great majority of Nigerians are still susceptible to COVID-19, it may be even more deadly if people allow it to transmit easily among one another.
