Tobias Sylvester
Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje has admitted that the state is in trouble due to its delay in the fight against coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking on Sunday at the presentation of a COVID-19 Mobile Testing Centre donated by the Dangote Foundation to the state, Ganduje said the state started fighting the pandemic on a shaky note due to the delay in testing suspected cases.
According to him, the delay in testing suspected cases was responsible for the exploding number of coronavirus infections in the state.
A statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Abba Anwar, quoted the governor as saying the absence of functional testing centres in the state worsened its situation amid the pandemic.
“There is no doubt that Kano is in trouble. And there is no doubt that we started on a shaky foundation. When samples were taken to Abuja for 7 hours and came back again in 7 hours, that was the shaky foundation I am talking about.
“We then lodged our complaint to President Muhammadu Buhari, who ordered for the establishment of a Testing Centre at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, which after take-off was shut down for some days if not weeks. That was what escalated the transmission of the disease up to community transmission.
“But with the coming back of the AKTH Testing Centre and the addition of Bayero University, Kano that has the capacity of testing about 200 samples per day now, with the coming of Dangote Mobile Testing Centre of 400 samples capacity, we are making headway in facing the crisis squarely,” he said.
According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Kano State currently has recorded 342 cases of coronavirus that has infected 2558 persons across the country.
