Kaduna State government has disclosed that a four-month-old child, who earlier tested positive to COVID-19, has been discharged after testing negative for the virus.
The government also disclosed that there are still 76 active cases in the state as at Friday.
The state Commissioner of Health, Dr Amina Mohammed Baloni made these disclosures on Saturday, saying that out of “the total number of 232 cases reported, 149 have been discharged, while seven deaths have been recorded.”
The Commissioner warned that “the state has tested almost 2000 samples, but case numbers are likely to rise further as more tests are conducted in more places.
According to her, “COVID-19 cases have been recorded in 33 wards in nine local government areas of the state: Chikun, Giwa, Igabi, Kaduna North, Kaduna South, Makarfi, Sabon-Gari, Soba and Zaria. The data shows that 80% of the infected persons are male.”
The statement reiterated that most of the cases either have a history of interstate travel or are contacts of infected persons.
“In addition to public health warnings to avoid interstate travel, state health officials have been engaged in vigorous contact tracing to contain the spread of the infections,” she assured.
“The Ministry has further stepped up active case searching and testing in communities to stem secondary infections,” adding that the testing capacity of the state is being enhanced to enable more aggressive testing in the coming weeks.
The Commissioner revealed that the state has taken “delivery of a mobile testing truck a few days ago, while it awaits the delivery of equipment that would enable the mobile truck and 12 GeneXpert machines spread across several general hospitals to increase the number of testing labs in the state.
“The addition of the flexibility of a mobile testing vehicle and testing labs in LGAs will enable the state to ascertain with greater accuracy its Covid-19 status and allow that data to inform further decision on reopening the state,” she assured.
The statement noted that the testing laboratory in Yusuf Dantsoho Hospital is awaiting the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control’s (NCDC) validation.
