By Ibrahim Shuaibu in Kano
Kano State Governor, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, on Thursday night sought for urgent easing of the 14-day total lockdown imposed on Kano by the Federal government to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the state.
Ganduje hinged his call for easing of the lockdown on the need to mitigate the economic hardship especially in the holy month of Ramadan.
“We would engage the presidential taskforce on COVID-19 to seek permission to relax the total lockdown imposed on Kano. We are making this appeal on behalf of our people who are presently running out of food items.
“We love the Federal government to relax the lockdown for a period of time to enable people stock their homes especially now that majority of us are fasting. It will also ease the economic hardship in the state”.
Ganduje spoke on Thursday at the Government House when he inaugurated a seven-member specialised experts to support the state taskforce technical committee. He stressed that government was expanding facilities to accommodate increasing number of suspects.
The specialised experts support committee led by president of National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, Professor Musa Borodo, were saddled with responsibility of developing strategy and suppor the state taskforce on COVID-19 to end the virus.
Meanwhile, the state coordinator on COVID-19 Dr Tijani Hussain said death toll of COVID-19 in Kano now stands at five.
Dr Tijani added that none of the victims died in the isolation centre.
The coordinator who put the current positive cases at 135 expressed hope that some suspect who were now certified negative after treatment would soon be discharged.
