From Maduabuchi Nmeribeh, Kano
Kano state Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has expressed the fear that community infection may pose another serious challenge in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic in the state.
Ganduje who spoke while receiving the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 pandemic at Africa House, Government on Tuesday also informed the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 that Kano deserves special attention, with the enormity of challenges occassioned by the pandemic and other health issues cropping up in the state.
According to him, “we are facing challenges from all angle that required serious attention, particularly, for the fact that we are currently facing community transmission.”
He explained that in spite of a number of measures taken to curb the fast spread of the virus in Kano, government was still battling with cultural and traditional misconception on the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ganduje applauded President Muhammad Buhari’s two-week total lockdown directive on Kano, pointing out that the total lockdown should have cut across the federation to attain maximum results.
Ganduje noted that though shutting down the entire country may further trigger economic crisis, the painful decision can only yield positive results.
He expressed worry over continued shut down of the National Centre for Disease Conteol (NCDC) testing centre in Kano, noting that the long term implication of absence of test centre in Kano may jeopardize moderate success recorded so far in the fight against the dreaded pandemic.
“Let me welcome the presidential taskforce for and the president for the timely intervention. The state will work fully with you to get rid of the virus in the state. There is no gain saying we do not have the cognitive express of dealing with the current challenge. We hope your presence here will fortify our efforts.
” We have put in place preventive, curative and palliative measures to deal with the challenge. Wee have three isolation centres with quality experts and health workers.
” But with the shut down of NCDC test centre, our efforts may not yield positive results. And on the lockdown we need full presence of the security agencies to enforce full restrictions of movement.
“Yet we have to take care of our security personnel and health workers to motivate them. With this we need support of Federal government,” he stated.
Ganduje pointed out that there should be the need for establishing testing centers at all the 44 Local Government Areas of the state, describing it as the only remedy to contain the situation.
According to him, with the population density of Kano, Covid-19 pandemic needs to be adequately curbed, with adequate human and material resources.
He insisted that without having good testing centers, “everything is immaterial; therefore, there should be such testing centers to curb the spread of the disease.”
