The second case of the dreaded Coronavirus Disease recorded in Kebbi State, who absconded from the hospital, is dead, according to the Commissioner for Health, Alhaji Jaafaru Mohammed.
The Commissioner disclosed this in Birnin Kebbi on Saturday when he gave a situation report of the State Task Force on the pandemic.
Mohammed 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, Sokoto, by his relatives.
“After reviewing the case by a Consultant, COVID-19 was suspected and our Rapid Response Team swung into action.”
According to the Commissioner, his sample was taken on April 25, 2020, but he absconded before he was taken to the isolation centre.
He lamented that the patient died at home on April 26, 2020.
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Mohammed said: “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 the Team had traced 12 close contacts and 17 other contacts.
Mohammed said: “Their samples have been taken to the reference laboratory in UDUTH, Sokoto, while the Sokoto State Epidemiologist and the Management of UDUTH were contacted.”
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 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.”
