Covid-19: “Kano Gov’t played needless politics over many lives”

Dear Fisayo Soyombo
(@fisayosoyombo)

Thanks for the report on what’s really happening in Kano.

You said, “there are at least four major reasons for the recent mass deaths and slow COVID-19 response in Kano: Three classes of people tested positive for the virus, then the state govt played needless politics.
But it’s not all gloom; there’s some good news, too”.

Here are your tweets reproduced here:

”

#FisayosCovid19Series

1. At least three lab scientists at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) got infected with the virus, so the lab was closed down.

That you already know. But you probably didn’t know that:

2. Some members of the Rapid Response Team (RRT) — answering calls and going from house to house to retrieve patients with a mobile ambulance & convey them to the hospital for testing & subsequent relocation to the isolation centre — also tested positive for the virus.

The RRT collapsed as well.

3. Some members of the Kano State Government Task Force on COVID-19, including the Co-Chairman and the Secretary, got infected with the virus and went into isolation.

The committee also collapsed.

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All of this in less than two weeks.

As these 3 arms shut down, the mysterious deaths started happening. Since the lab was shut, there was no way to test other than to move the lab to Abj.

But to do that moving, they needed the RRT to touch different locations in town to collect samples & forward them to Abj.

This was no longer possible. Testing was summarily impeded.

4. The state govt began denying the deaths until the figures rose so high that denial became untenable.

The Federal Ministry of Health offered to come into Kano to take over the COVID-19 response, but…

…the state government initially refused, not wanting to be seen as a weak state.

However, with pressure from all corners, plus the rising deaths, they had no choice but to allow them.

Finally, on Tuesday, a team from the Federal Government and the NCDC came into Kano to partner with what was left of the Kano COVID-19 task force.

They’ve been taking samples a lot this week.

But the samples had to be taken to Abuja — a time-consuming process cos it takes one day to get to Abuja & another to return to Kano.

In btw, the test result itself takes 12 to 18 hours to process. All these amount to 3 to 4 days. In that time, the virus would have struck

Some good news, though.

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Yesterday, the lab at AKTH was reactivated to resume testing, so samples won’t go to Abuja any longer.
Yesterday and today in particular, lots of samples were taken.

But there are no results yet because, as I said earlier, it takes 12-18 hours to get the result.

From tomorrow or Saturday, you’ll start seeing the impact, which will definitely mean higher COVID-19 figures for Kano than you’ve seen in the last week.

”

There.

Thanks.

See what politics is doing to lives. This is how politics, religion and personal greed as caged us.

I knew something wasn’t just right about these rising figures. Sadly this is just Kano’s story.

Unfortunately there are many more cases and stories across these states that are also a byproduct of Politics, Religion and Personal Greed.

Sad times.

Your Covid-19 Report spotter,
Ediale
#ForTheCulture

PS: People that can pray should start praying. Those that have one super power or the other should start using it. As we battle this coronavirus, I am afraid we will have more of people problem to tackle as well.

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