Abdulrazaq Mungadi
Gombe State Task-force on COVID-19 has said that about 20 out the 103 confirmed cases of the pandemic that was recorded in the state have been discharged from various isolation facilities in the state.
Addressing newsmen during a daily press conference of the task-force on Friday in Gombe, the State’s Commissioner for health Dr. Ahmed Gana, explained that the patients discharged from the isolation facility in Kwadon and the isolation ward of the Federal Teaching Hospital (FTH) Gombe were those whose test result turned out to be negative after the first and second post isolation test.
Dr. Gana who had on Thursday assured that the task-force will always adhere to protocols regarding cases under isolation equally called for more collaboration and cooperation to win the fight against COVID-19 in the state.
Calming the patients whose cases are yet to be retested and those whose results turned out to be negative, Dr. Gana assured that the task-force is working ensuring that every patient cleared is discharged. He said: “People can contract the virus on the same day but might not ultimately means they will heal the same day”.
The commissioner of health further explains that about 1, 047 suspected cases from Gombe have been tested out of which the 103 confirmed cases were recorded and that the state is expecting pending results for 26 suspected cases. He disclosed that the state had been tracing 715 contacts of which 630 have been reached.
On his part, the State’s commissioner of education Dr. Habu Dahiru, who is also a member of the task-force enjoins residents and other family members to welcome the victims discharged without stigma or humiliation. They have been isolated and test negative before being discharged.
Those 20 people discharged are clean and cleared, there should be no stigma on them when they reached home. We have given them a clean bill of health,” Dr. Habu said while calling on the discharged victims to be ambassadors of COVID-19 in their respective communities.
“We expect them to educate their families and community members that COVID is really and the way they were isolated and turned negative is the best way to contain the situation,” the commissioner added.