…As Task force begins contact tracing after death of staff
By Lateef Hassan
The office of the Secretary to the Gombe State Government, SSG as well as the Government House clinic, have been closed and are to be fumigated after a confirmation that the covid-19 test result of the government House staff who died Sunday returned positive.
The state Task force on covid-19, through its Rapid Response Team has already begun line listing and contact tracing following confirmation that the late Shuaibu Danlami, Director in the office of the Secretary to the State Government died of covid-19.
The Chairman of the task force, Professor Idris Mohammed disclosed this at a press briefing where he equally confirmed that the test result of the late Director was among the 3 covid-19 positive cases the state recorded on Wednesday.
To this end, the Chairman said all high risk areas at the Government House, especially the office of the deceased, that of the SSG and the clinic where he was admitted will be fumigated, closed and samples of the occupants collected for testing.
Professor Mohammed said the Rapid Response Team (RRT) of the Taskforce has also begun tracing individuals who participated in the deceased’s burial and his family members for counselling, testing and isolation if found positive.
The Gombe task force Chairman said “although we have managed to keep Gombe communities safe for well over 2 months now because of the proactive steps taken by the government”, warned that there is now a clear evidence of community transmission of the covid-19 because two of the seven deaths recorded in the state are individuals who have not travelled out of the state.
He said the Task force has intensified efforts to ramp up sensitization campaign through an expanded involvement of communities in the State.
Meanwhile the chairman Gombe State Task force on covid-19 said Governor Inuwa Yahaya has approved the expansion and modification of the covid-19 laboratory at the State specialist hospital.
The chairman said the approval followed recommendation by officials of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC before the newly acquired PCR machine is installed.