Daily Post Nigeria / / 4 hours ago
Yobe State has within the last five weeks recorded 471 deaths across five local government areas in the state.
Vice-Chairman, COVID-19 Committee on Prevention and Control, Dr. Lawan Gana, disclosed this in Damaturu while presenting “Yobe State Verbal Autopsy Preliminary Findings” triggered by the recent reported mass deaths in the state.
He said the death rate was looked for five weeks starting from last week of April to date, admitting that there were about 471 deaths reported within the period as indicated by the findings.
“57 per cent of those deaths had underlying chronic illnesses. More than 57% were aged between 50 years and above. The trend actually showed an increase in mortality”, he admitted.
He, however, noted that the geospatial maps showed no clustering mortalities as 90% of those that died had no travel history outside the state. “90 per cent of the cases did not have symptoms that were consistent with COVID-19.
“It was noted that 16 of the 471 deceased in the five local government areas combined relatives revealed someone with similar symptoms. All the 16 persons were investigated and referred to health facilities. 3 out of the 16 made the case definition of COVID-19 and 13 did not meet the definition, they had other diseases.
“All the 3 persons were from Potiskum and their samples have been collated and sent for testing and all of the 3 are in self isolation”, he said.
A breakdown of deaths showed that, Damaturu 86, Bade 112, Potiskum 121 and Nguru has152 deaths within the period.
According to Gana, the preliminary findings also indicated that, 90% of deceased died as a result of hypertension, 23 per cent diabetes, 8 per cent each had a combination of hypertension, diabetes and kidney disease, 5 per cent died of liver disease while 18 per cent died of other diseases.
He added that the importation of COVID-19 into the state is minimal as only 4 per cent had traveled.
The Health Commissioner assured that the COVID-19 Committee will intensify dialogue to strengthen partnership with communities for them to adhere strictly to the preventive and control guidelines.
“We are still intensifying on case search to improve our surveillance and sensitivity. We will also intensify on sample collation and testing”, he pledged.