COVID-19: Kano govt’s claim of decline in number of cases premature –Expert

The claim by the Kano State government that there is a decline in recorded cases of the dreaded COVID-19 disease in the state has been described as premature.

The Director, Centre for Infectious Diseases Research, Bayero University, Kano; Professor Isa Abubakar, who faulted the claim in a statement issued on Saturday said that the said decline by Governor Ganduje is not in any way a sign of relief on the spread of COVID 19 in Kano.

Professor Abubakar, who expressed worry over the decline in the number of samples being supplied to the state epidemiology team for COVID-19 tests, insisted that as an epidemiologist the decline is rather more worrisome.

“Honestly as an epidemiologist, I will only be happy if the number of tests we are conducting is larger than what we are seeing and we are recording more negatives but for now, it is premature to celebrate.

“I can say we are doing better than when we started but we have not reached the promise land yet because right now, the number of samples being supplied from the state epidemiology team is on the decline and that is not the good way to go if we really need to fight the pandemic.

“We need to up our game to ramp up tests in Kano as well as other neighboring states that we are serving so that we know the actual picture of the pandemic in our community so that we take all necessary measures to isolate the positive cases for treatment and also search for more cases and intervention,” he explained.