- Four deaths recorded so far, govt insists
By Mohammed Gambo, Damaturu
Yobe State Government has revealed that the cause of most of the mass death recorded in the state recently was not COVID-19.
Commissioner of Health and Vice Chairman of the COVID 19 Committee in the state, Dr. Mohammed Gana, told journalists in Damaturu on Tuesday that the preliminary report of the investigative response team constituted by the state government has confirmed that 90% of the mass death could not be traced to coronavirus.
The Commissioner said the team came to the conclusion after very meticulous, verbal autopsy by interviewing relatives of the deceased and medical personnel of those that died in the hospital or had documented medical history.
He disclosed that the team recorded 471 deaths from last week of April to 2nd Week of May, 2020 in four affected LGAs, including Potiskum, Nguru, Gashu’a and Damaturu the state capital.
He said: “57% of the total deaths had underlying chronic illness which included fever, hypertension, diabetes, renal disease maternal mortality and accident victims.”
The Commissioner revealed that 57% of total mortalities were older people within the aged bracket of more than 50 years, with majority of them were males.
He said: “16 of the 471 deceased relative revealed someone with similar symptoms, and all 16 were investigated and referred to facility. Out of the number, 3 out of the 16 met case definition of COVID-19”.
He explained that 96% of the number had no travel history outside the state just as the geospatial maps also indicated no clustering in the mortality.
Gana highlighted that civil servants in the state accounted for just 3% of the deaths with the remaining 97% of the deaths were among artisans and businessmen.
Meanwhile the Yobe State Commissioner for Health and Vice Chairman of COVID 19, Dr. Mohammed Gana on Tuesday said the record of death to COVID-19 pandemic in the state stands at four.
The Commissioner also revealed that 20 positive cases have so far been recorded.
Dr. Gana who briefed the media in Damaturu, said the four deaths were recorded at the state isolation centres in Damaturu and Nguru.
He lamented that the four people killed by the pandemic were brought in late to the health facilities and were already manifesting acute symptoms.
Gana, who was responding to questions from journalists, said: “To respond to your question the mortality in the Isolation centre, I want to tell you that as at today, we have twenty confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Yobe state.
“Then four people have died. Three died here in Damaturu and one in Nguru. All the people that died are suspected to have the disease because their samples were collected but the results came after they have died.
“I want to point out that all the people that died were presented very late to the health facilities and isolated. Of course almost all of them have underlying illness.”