By Segun Awofadeji
Gombe State has recorded its first casualty from the dreaded coronavirus pandemic also known as Covid-19.
The state Taskforce Committee Chairman on Covid-19, Prof. Idris Mohammed, disclosed Tuesday during a press briefing that the victim, a 50-year-old resident of Kwadom, in the outskirts of the state capital where an isolation centre is being sited, died on Sunday, May 10, 2020 around 4:00pm at the state Specialist Hospital.
The chairman explained that the victim, who had tested positive to Covid-19 after returning from Bauchi recently, was also suffering from high blood pressure and had not been undergoing treatment for the ailment.
According to the Taskforce Chairman, the victim was brought to the Kwadom isolation centre after a community leader in the area reported to the committee the situation of the deceased who showed symptoms of Covid-19.
After discovering the escalation in the situation of the victim, he was then brought to the Covid-19 isolation ward of the state Specialist Hospital where he was later taken to the ICU unit where he had a partial stroke and later died.
He said since the Kwadom and Federal Teaching Hospital (FTH), Gombe uprising by Covid-19 patients last week, the committee had reviewed and restructured its operations with the creation of a subcommittee known as Facility Management Committee responsible for managing and ensuring the welfare of the patients.
He said the committee had also strengthened the security of the Kwadom centre by reinforcing the fencing as well as the gate and ensured the deployment of more security officials at the facility.
At the FTH Gombe isolation ward, the chairman said the Chief Medical Director of the hospital, who is also a member of the committee, requested the deployment of five policemen to the ward.
He said the feeding of the patients had greatly improved following the restructuring of the Taskforce Committee.
A total of 1,168 persons had been tested for Covid-19 in Gombe State, out of which 118 had tested positive of the virus as at the time of filing this report.
