The Jigawa State Government on Wednesday announced its first fatality from COVID-19, a deadly respiratory disease caused by coronavirus, an official has said.
The deceased, a Lagos returnee, is a resident of Fanisau community in Dutse, the state’s capital. He died a few hours after he was moved to the isolation centre.
Residents said the deceased, upon returning from Lagos State, had been receiving treatment at home for yet to be identified ailments until his sample was taken and returned positive.
The state’s Commissioner for Health, Abba Zakari, said “Immediately after we got results of Jigawa, we swiftly moved to action and evacuated the patients into the isolation centre. Unfortunately one of them came in a very bad situation and passed away.”
Mr Zakari added that the state recorded a total of nine cases from eight of its 27 Local Government Areas. The affected local councils include Gumel, Auyo, Gwaram, Kazaure, Miga, Taura, Birnin-Kudu and Dutse.
The official said the state government has locked down the affected local government areas. This, he said, will aid the health workers to trace the primary and secondary contacts of the infected persons.
Meanwhile, the commissioner also decried the state’s inability to test many samples from the state who are currently in isolation which he said constraints the fight against the disease.
“We’ve been limited by testing, we are discussing with a private laboratory in Kaduna which is accredited by the NCDC, the laboratory has the capacity to do 2000 test per day, but with a price, we are negotiating, we would likely test all our suspected cases at the isolation centre,” Mr Zakari said.
The government also has commenced distribution of palliative in the lockdown areas to cushion the effects of the lockdown to the vulnerable members of the community, the official said.
The Nigeria Centre of Disease Control (NCDC) announced seven deaths across the country from the disease on Wednesday, bringing the total deaths to 51, with Jigawa having one.
The NCDC, via its verified Twitter handle, also announced 196 new infections with Jigawa state having seven.
Total confirmed cases in the country reached 1,728, while 307 have recovered and been discharged.
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