Abdulrazaq Mungadi, Gombe
Gombe State has recorded its first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus infectious disease (COVID-19) as five state returnees from Kano tested positive for the virus.
According to an official of the state ministry of health who pleaded anonymity, the index cases are five persons who are believed to have travelled from Kano into the state, one of which is an indigene of Biu in Borno State. The source said the returnees came into Gombe on Friday.
The official confirmed to Daily Sun that it has been confirmed that the samples taken have tested positive for COVID-19. The official spoke off the record.
The source lamented that having five cases as an index case is alarming and devastating.
“The major problem now is their contacts and now the new protocol is that all confirmed and suspected cases, as well as their contacts, must be taken away from the community and isolated by the government, no more self-isolation for suspected cases. And we have seen a state where a confirmed case has over a hundred contacts,” the official lamented and added that the state has been battling with residents to adhere to preventive measures announced by the government.
“Maybe now that we have confirmed cases and by the time we start isolating people in schools and other places, residents will face reality and follow all the preventive measures,” the official told Daily Sun over the phone.
State Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya is said to have summoned an emergency meeting with members of the State Council of Emirs and Chiefs to be held at 11 am Tuesday, April 21, at the new banquet hall of the Government House in Gombe.