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The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) test centre of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in Kano State has ran out of test kits.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Isah Abubakar, Director, Centre for Infectious Diseases Research, Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) made this known on Wednesday.
Abubakar said the centre would remain close until test kits arrived from the federal capital territory (FCT), Abuja.
“We have already taken some samples and don’t know when we will receive new test kits. That’s why we temporarily suspend operations,” Abubakar told Kano Focus.
He however assured that samples taken in Kano will be sent to Abuja for testing pending the resumption of the Kano test centre based in AKTH.
During the temporary closure the laboratory is being fumigated as part of routine bio-safety measures to ensure the safety of staff and the environment, TNG learnt.
Kano has continued to report rising number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, which the State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje has attributed to the cosmopolitan nature of Kano.
According to the Governor, the set up of Kano was one of the reasons for the rise in COVID-19 cases, adding that being the most populous State in the country, among other factors, are reasons for the high numbers.
Governor Ganduje, who made this known at Africa House, Government House, Kano, when Director General (DG) of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu visited the State as part of his assessment tour to assess the State’s response to the pandemic, said:
“So far, we don’t have very serious cases where index cases need the usage of ventilators and monitors. But that doesn’t mean we shall sit without doing anything. We are doing our best, as acknowledged by the DG NCDC.
“All the index cases we have are within the metropolitan local governments. We can therefore say, community transmission is not there. So it could be true to say we need more testing centres. There is a need to increase our capacity for testing suspected cases. At the same time we also need more collection centres.
“Being the most populous State in the country among other factors, are reasons for the high numbers we are recording. Lagos being the second populous state in the country and Abuja being the federal Capital, there is no surprise that the numbers are rising up.
“So also when Kano becomes the third in this category. Is just like what is happening in other global cities. Due to the metropolitan nature of the settlement”.
The Governor went further to say that the disease is new and with it’s new behaviour, there is a need to get a new strategy to deal with it.
“By the time we also have new behaviours of our people, we thought we should also get new strategy to deal with those new behaviours. That is why we are coming up with our Kano State Infectious Diseases Regulation 2020 to take care of those new public behaviours.”
“The new Law, that was signed on 15th April, 2020, has many provisions to assist in responding to the global pandemic… starting from relating with suspected cases, to other areas in dealing with the disease.
“We are doing as much as we can to tame the situation. That is why, those suspected cases that are less privileged, we take them to hotel after taking their samples, to keep them there.
“For those whose samples are positive, we take them to isolation centres. And for those that are negative we leave them go to their residences. Our administration is very serious about this,” Ganduje said.
As a matter of strong ties among stakeholders, governor Ganduje said “We need interface, rapid response and we need good coordination. As the third state in the category after Lagos state and the federal Capital Territory, Abuja, as the most affected states, we need funds to respond well to this deadly COVID-19 pandemic”.
The state Deputy Governor Dr Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna, who is the Chairman of the State Task Force on COVID-19 and Dr Tijjani Hussaini, the Coordinator of the Technical Team briefed the DG about the feats so far recorded in the state, in the fight against the global pandemic.
During the visit, the NCDC DG was at some isolation centers to see for himself the level of the State preparedness. He commended the State government response to the fight against the deadly COVID-19 pandemic in the State.
As at the time of filing this report, Kano has 73 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with one death.