FG medical team links Kano ‘strange’ deaths to COVID-19

The Federal Government Medical Team sent to Kano has revealed that preliminary investigation indicated that most of the recent deaths recorded in Kano were as a result the Coronavirus pandemic in state.

In an interview with newsmen in Kano on Sunday, Dr. Nasiru Gwarzo, the leader of Presidential task force on COVID-19, revealed that their investigation has shown that in most of the deaths in Kano, there were symptoms of Coronavirus.

According to him, one pf the major challenge they encountered in fighting the pandemic in Kano was the lack of belief in the existence of the disease by some people in the state.

He said they have also discovered about sixty eight grave yards in Kano metropolis, where they stationed their men in order to take the actual record and samples of the dead bodies.

Gwarzo, who also lost his father during the period that Kano recorded a high number of deaths, said: “Let me inform us that most of the deaths recorded of recent and test carried out showed that coronavirus was the cause.

“So, before the final report which would be ready in the next one week or few days, it is necessary for people of Kano to wake up from their slumber that this is a serious issue.

“We need to know what is happening; we are successful in identifying what the problems are and secondly we are happy on the level of cooperation the private sector and other stake holders. Many people have come out to support the state, we cannot expand our investigation until we are certain.

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“We have five cogent reasons to say that the mass death recorded in Kano is associated with coronavirus.”

He listed them as the age of the deceased persons, concentration of the people in one place and “test we have constructed which have element of COVID-19”.

Gwarzo spoke during the official presentation and handing over of the mobile testing laboratory the Aliko Dangote Foundation donated to Kano government.

It would be recalled that a lecturer at the department of mathematics, Yusuf Maitama Sule University in Kano, Yusuf Yau Gambo, had earlier linked the strange deaths to COVID-19.

Gambo, who had carried out a “community-based survey on increased mortality in Kano State,” said 41.3 percent of those who died in the state during the period had fever — one of the symptoms of COVID-19.

The survey of the applied mathematician and data analyst was based on a very small sample size of 260 households from over 17 local government areas.

There are 313 COVID-19 cases in Kano which has the second highest number of coronavirus patients in Nigeria.