The mysterious deaths recorded in Kano state, Nigeria, in recent times is said to be caused by coronavirus, an official of the Presidential Task Force Committer on COVID-19 has confirmed.
Over 640 persons, including prominent figures, reportedly died in the previous week in Kano from previously unidentified illness. The illness has now been confirmed to be Coronavirus.
Dr. Nasiru Sani Gwarzo, leader of the Presidential Task Force Committee on COVID-19 said that the virus was the cause of the mysterious deaths recorded in Kano State in recent days.
The state government had previously denied links of COVID-19 to the deaths but a survey based report carried out by by Yusuf Yau Gambo, a lecturer at the department of mathematics at Yusuf Maitama Sule University in Kano revealed otherwise.
Gwarzo, who spoke on Sunday, said the test carried out established that COVID-19 responsible for hundreds of deaths recorded in Kano.
“So, before the final report which would be ready in the next one week or few days, it is necessary for people of Kano to wake up from their slumber that this is a serious issue.
“It is not a new thing, countries like America, China, Italy, Spain, England, France and others experienced similar mysterious deaths.”
There have been concerns about the COVID-19 cases and the increasing deaths in the state.
The World Health Organization launched a probe into reports of increases in the unusual deaths.
A team of experts is gathering hospital records and interviewing families of those who died at home were also activated to determine the actual cause of death.
President Muhammadu Buhari had during the week gave a matching order to the Gwarzo-led Presidential Task Force to unravel the cause of the mysterious deaths in Kano and also to contain the spread of the virus in the state.
Kano state also deported in numbers homeless children known as “Almajiris” to their states of origin. 16 of the deported children were found to be positive for coronavirus on arrival in Kaduna state.
Kano currently has 313 confirmed cases while Nigeria has a total of 2388 cases, 315 recoveries and 85 deaths. Globally confirmed cases surpass 3 million victims.
With this new revelation about Kano, these figures may now seem unrealistic as hundreds undocumented cases may have died in Kano and many victims remain asymptomatic or untested,
