United Nations deploy 3,000 personnel in Kano

The United Nations and the World Health Organisation have deployed 3,000 of their personnel in Kano State to respond to the pandemic in the state.

The Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, made this known during a briefing in Abuja on Friday evening.

Mustapha, who is also the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, said the Federal Government’s response in Kano has begun yielding some results.

He said, “I wish to inform you that our response to the situation in Kano State is producing expected outcomes since testing was ramped up.

“The state task force in collaboration with our team have also expanded contact tracing and isolation.

“A lot of emphases are being placed on the training of different categories of manpower – medical, nursing, cleaners etc, the building of capacity for coordination and care management and supply chain. We are also putting together a structure from the Presidential Task Force team to provide support on a full-time basis.

“The United Nations system coordinated by the World Health Organisation is also putting together a search team and repurposing 3,000 community informants from the Primary Healthcare in Kano State to strengthen the coordination of COVID-19 at state and local government levels.

“Although the spike in numbers coming out of Kano is a bit worrisome, global trends showed that such indicates discovery of previously undetected cases and creates greater opportunities for detection and isolation, care and management.”

Newsmen report that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control as of Thursday night said Kano recorded 80 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total infections confirmed in the state to 219 with zero recovery but five fatalities.