By Audrey Lotechukwu
TUE, JUN 02 2020-theG&BJournal- Kano, a state previously thought to be shaping into a corornavirus basket case has surprised with the relatively low number of new cases and fewer fatalities.
The spread of the pandemic in the state, going by the numbers published by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in the past one week, has almost completely slowed.
The State has recorded just 9 fatalities in the past one week from the 25th of May 2020 to date, and a total of just 59 new cases of the COVID-19 infection, to rank it now among the states with the slowest rate of spread of the disease. It still ranks second though with number of confirmed cases totally 958 and 45 deaths behind Lagos which has a record 5,135 confirmed cases and 55 deaths.
Kano State came into focus early May when some inexplicable deaths began to manifest with local cemeteries reporting strange number of burials in the congested city with nearly 9 million people.
There were conflicting reports about the reasons for the deaths. Even the state governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, initially blamed it on sudden spike of diabetes and malaria.
But it soon emerged that the coronavirus has taken a hold on the city. The Federal Govenment then quickly imposed a total lockdown on the state which the state government subsequently extended on May 12 2020 by a week.
By the middle of May 2020 the state had raced ahead of Abuja (FCT) as the second most infected state in the country with 666 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 32 deaths associated with the disease.
The quick implementation of restrictions on Kano and the deployment of more testing mobile testing facilities to complement the two already in existence in Kano quickly followed.
Aliko Dangote Foundation and 54gene, a company set up to provide genomic data for Africa partnered to provide a mobile COVID-19 testing laboratory with capacity for 400 test per day. The measure is followed with the opening of testing centres in rural areas across the state.
All of these may explain the surprisingly low rate of spread of the coronavirus as reflected in the NCDC data which suggests a reduction in the disease transmission, and informed the ‘’cautious’’ easing of the lockdown of the state Monday by the Federal Government.
The State Governor Ganduje Monday also approved reopening of all markets in Kano on relaxed days of Wednesday, Friday and Sunday from 6am to 6pm each day.
Experts however still warn it is not over yet, echoing the views of the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha.
Meanwhile, the number of coronavirus cases nationwide increased by 416 to take total figure to 10, 578.
3122 cases have been discharged and 299 deaths have been recorded in 35 states and the Federal Capital Territory
The 416 new cases reported for 1st of June 2020 are from 20 states- Lagos (192), Edo (41), Rivers (33), Kaduna (30), Kwara (23), Nasarawa (18), Borno (17), FCT (14), Oyo (10), Katsina (7), Abia (5), Delta (5), Adamawa (4), Kano (4), Imo (3), Ondo (3), Benue(2), Bauchi(2), Ogun (2), Niger (1)
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