Desmond Mgboh, Kano
Kano State Governor Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has directed security agencies in the state to enforce the use of face masks by the members of the public.
The governor gave the directive during the COVID-19 press briefing held on Saturday night at the Kano Government House.
Ganduje, who also received the document for the home management of COVID-19 in the state, lamented that a majority of the people of the state were not observing the use of face masks, despite the efforts made by his administration to make the protective gear available to the public at no cost
Ganduje stressed that ‘our major challenge is for members of the public to observe the prescribed rules and regulations or the protocols of COVID-19.
‘We are having challenges because many people are not using the face mask, which is a frontline preventive aspect of the current fight. We are enforcing it but we will improve our level of enforcement.’ he added
‘I appeal to our security agencies to put more efforts to ensure that the people of the state are using the face masks because that is the safest way of preventing the spread of the disease,’ he stated.
Ganduje listed the milestones recorded in the fight against COVID-19 to include additional numbers of collection centres, including more testing and isolation centres. adding that the state has deployed its health officer to collect random samples at the community level.
He added that the state has also discharged the controversy surrounding the purported mysterious deaths in the state, describing the probe panel’s report on deaths in the state as an excellent job.
The Coordinator, Kano State Technical Response Team on COVID-19, Dr Tijjani Husseni, in his remarks, said that as at the June 19, the state had confirmed a total of 1,180 from 9,080 samples collected over a three month period.
He described the feat as remarkable given that samples collected in the state represented almost 10 per cent of the total samples collected in Nigeria.
Dr Tijjani added that over this period, the state has a total of 425 active cases, adding that they had discharged 707 cases and lost 50 patients to the disease.