NCDC Replies Kogi State Government Over Its COVID-19 Status

The Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) has noted that there is no controversy or dilemma about the COVID-19 status of Kogi State.

Chikwe Ihekweazu, the NCDC Director-General said on Thursday that the agency stands by its report that the state has recorded two cases of COVID-19.

Naija News reports that for many weeks, Kogi State maintained its status as a COVID-19 free state but on Wednesday, May 27, the NCDC recorded two cases against the state.

However, the state Commissioner for Health, Saka Haruna-Audu, in a statement released Thursday morning, dismissed the results, saying the state has conducted hundreds of tests for COVID19 and all have returned negative.

Haruna-Audu added that the state will not bow to pressures by some people to impose fake test results on it.

”We have also continued to insist that Kogi state will not be a party to any fictitious COVID19 claims which is what we do not recognize any COVID19 test conducted by Kogite outside the boundaries of the state except initiated by us” his statement said

However, Ihekweazu while speaking at the daily press briefing of the Presidential Taskforce on COVID19 in Abuja on Thursday evening said the NCDC stands by its report of two COVID-19 cases in Kogi State.

”There is actually no dilemma in the two cases. They followed absolutely normal practice. The patient that was referred from the Federal Medical Center to the National Hospital. This is a normal referral pathway when you have a case. The physicians in the National Hospital suspected COVID-19 from the clinical symptoms of the patient, asked for a test, it came out positive. The individual lives in Kogi state.”

He added that the state epidemiologist has been informed of the development and expressed hope that the state would begin contact tracing which the NCDC stated is the state’s responsibility.

“Your public health response is based on where you live because that is where your contacts are so this is not controversial in anyway. Standard practice was followed. Once the results came out, the state epidemiologist was informed that he has to do contact tracing around this patient. It is the state’s responsibility to do that contact tracing. So we hope they do it” he said.