The federal government said Monday that the coronavirus test laboratory centre at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) has reopened and testing of cases commenced immediately.

This was disclosed by the Director General of National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Mr Chikwe Ihekweazu, at the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 pandemic.

He said a national response team made up of 16 people has been deployed, stressing that the state would continue to receive support of the federal government.

“I will like to remind everyone that during a pandemic, the risk of spread is to those areas where the population density is the highest. We are all aware of the population density in Kano, so Kano has always been very high on our radar.

“The high number of cases that we are now seeing in Kano is really not a surprise and we are very concerned about this and we are doing everything we can.

“Despite our strong commitment to quickly control the spread of the coronavirus, there is no magic bullet, if anyone has one I will be happy to get it. But as much as there has been this conversation, our role is to continue to work very hard on behalf of everyone, for the people of Kano and the people of state in the country.

“So, what exactly are we doing? Firstly, is to mention that Kano has been one of the states we have had strongest relationship with at NCDC. There is no single state I have visited more often since I became the NCDC DG in 2016 than Kano.

“Just last week I visited Kano and met with the governor of Kano State, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje and we had very fruitful discussion. We did everything possible to activate the Kano lab, but sometimes speed also has consequences. So we had to pause and shut the lab for the safety of workers at the lab. The Kano lab will go functional today. Everybody is working hard to get the lab working,” he said.

Also speaking, the National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force, Dr. Sani Aliyu, said the federal government would ensure that the issues in Kano are quickly resolved.

“A lot has been said about Kano, I just want to further add that we have been working very closely with our partners, specifically the UN System and the US government, to ensure that the whole aspect of the Kano response, particularly where we are having difficulties in terms of testing, in terms of access to patients, in terms of logistics, is sorted out and we are very grateful to our donors for coming together and making sure that we have a very coherent response.

“I will again emphasise the message to the people of Kano; they are not alone, the federal government will continue to take its responsibility seriously and we’ll continue to work with the state government and other stakeholders to ensure that the issue in Kano is sorted out as soon as possible,” he said. (Blueprint)

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