The Minister of Health Dr Osagie Ehanire said Monday that 60 percent of the recent deaths in Kano state was caused by COVID-19 pandemic.
The minister said this at the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force on Control of COVID-19 in Abuja.
He said the Ministry of Health had received a report of the Ministerial Task Team which visited Kano to support the COVID-19 response with commodities, training, technical and confidence building measures.
“The team confirmed from graveyard records, that a total of 979 deaths were recorded in 8 municipal LGA in the state at a rate of 43 deaths per day, with a peak in the second week of April.
“By the beginning of May, the death rate had reduced to the 11 deaths per day it used to be.The verbal autopsy revealed that about 52 percent of deaths had occurred at home while 38 percent were in a hospital.
“If circumstantial evidence is all to go by, investigation suggests that between 50 and 60 percent of the deaths may have been triggered by or due to COVID-19 in the face of pre existing ailments. Most fatalities were over 65 years of age,” he said.He said the visit was meant to offer support to five other states, stressing that the committee had developed a Strategic Incident Action Plan to strengthen the health workers’ capacity.