Over the last three weeks, a staggering 471 deaths have been reported in five local government areas of Yobe State.
On Tuesday, the state task force on COVID-19 shared this alarming information.
Dr. Muhammad Lawan Gana, the Yobe State Commissioner for Health and vice-chairman of the state COVID-19 Committee on Prevention and Control, revealed the preliminary findings of the “Yobe State Verbal Autopsy” in response to the recent surge in deaths in the state.
Most of the reported deaths were elderly individuals, Dr. Gana stated, adding that the death rate escalated over the three-week period from the last week of April, with a total of 471 reported deaths.
He acknowledged, “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 also emphasized that there was no clustering of mortalities based on geospatial maps, with 90% of the deceased individuals having no travel history outside the state.
Elaborating further, he stated, “90 per cent of the cases did not have symptoms that were consistent with COVID-19.”
Of the 471 deceased individuals across the five local government areas, 16 showed similar symptoms, which led to investigations and referrals to health facilities. Only three out of the 16 met the case definition of COVID-19, while the remaining 13 had other diseases.
Dr. Gana revealed, “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.”
A breakdown of deaths per area indicated: 86 in Damaturu, 112 in Bade, 121 in Potiskum, and 152 in Nguru over the specified period.