The Jigawa Government on Monday confirmed three persons negative to Coronavirus, who have just returned to Nigeria from Lesser Hajj in Saudi Arabia.
The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Abba Zakari, who revealed this to newsmen in Dutse said that the persons, including a four-year-old boy, were subjected to test after exhibiting symptoms related to the virus.
He also announced that the state has inaugurated an 18-member Task-force aimed at curtailing the Covid-19 pandemic in the state.
“The Task-force will be chaired by my humble self and my permanent secretary will serve as its secretary.
“Others members were drawn from other ministries, religious and traditional institution, CSOs, development partners, ALGON, House of Assembly and security agencies,” Zakari said.
The commissioner said that the state government had also provided an isolation centre for the treatment of suspected cases of Coronavirus.
“Since before the issue of Coronavirus in Nigeria, our isolation centre has been undergoing renovation work for almost two months.
“We just finished renovating it this afternoon and will be fully equipped and furnished next week as the government has given us all the necessary support to prevent this disease,” he said.
According to him, if the need arises, the government will provide isolation centre in each of the three senatorial districts in the state.
The commissioner said that hand sanitizers have been provided at all public places, including MDAs in order to curtail the spread of the disease.
He added that the ministry is also collaborating with the Ministry for Local Governments to ensure that same is provided in all the 27 local government areas of the state.
According to him, the state government has also banned the gathering of more 20 people as part of measures to prevent the spread of the disease.
However, Zakari said that as soon as the ministry received information about three returnees, it swiftly mobilized it Rapid Response Team (RRT) and took the sample of the suspected cases to Abuja for test.
The commissioner confirmed that according to the result obtained on March 22, the suspected persons were not having the virus.
“On Monday last week, we received a report that three persons, including a four-year-old baby in Babura town who returned from Saudi Arabia for a Lesser Hajj were exhibiting some signs of Coronavirus.
“So we quickly dispatched our RRT that assessed the suspected cases and their samples to Abuja for test. And fortunately the result came back negative,” the commissioner said.
