By Idowu Abdullahi,
With eight confirmed cases in Nigeria, Katsina State Government has announced its first suspected case of coronavirus, a disease that has now achieved global pandemic status.
It disclosed that the suspected case had recently travelled back into the country from Malaysia, following which the patient developed symptoms of the respiratory viral illness and immediately went into self isolation after alerting relevant state authorities.
The Permanent Secretary, Katsina state Ministry of Health, Dr Kabir Mustapha, stated that the ministry and National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had swung into action on receipt of information regarding the suspected patient, and that the case was being properly handled and monitored in order to make an informed diagnosis to confirm whether it was a coronavirus case or not.
Mustapha, while briefing newsmen on Wednesday, said the patient’s samples had been taking and that results were being expected, adding that the ministry would disclose the patient’s test results as soon as they were available.
He added that the possibility of the deadly coronavirus in the state was no cause for concern and urged the people of Katsina to remain calm and embrace personal hygiene habits including proper hand washing and regular hand sanitization, saying that such measures would help curb further spread of the virus if indeed it had found its way into the state.
The secretary assured the people of the government’s proactive measures towards curtailing possible spread of the disease, as well as performing contact tracing on all who had possible contact with the patient as soon as the test results were available.
“The ministry is taking all precautionary measures and closely working with the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), on the matter’”.
He advised Katsinans to be cautious of movements, gatherings and vigilant to note symptoms is persons near them, adding that people should seek medical attention as soon as they feel sick or notice any strange symptoms.
