COVID-19: Seven health workers test positive in Borno state.

Updated 4 hours ago

- Seven health workers have tested positive for COVID-19 in Borno state

- 145 contacts of the confirmed cases have been traced and are being monitored

- Borno had on Sunday, April 19 recorded its index case who died while receiving treatment for a severe respiratory disease

Seven health workers have tested positive for COVID-19 in Borno state.

This was disclosed by the secretary, Borno High Powered Response team on COVID-19, Dr Salihu Kwaya-Bura on Friday, April 24.

Kwaya-Bura who is also the state's commissioner for health, said Borno has recorded 15 cases include two deaths.

Medical experts are worried that with clustered spaces like this, Borno might be at risk of a coronavirus explosion

His words: “145 contacts of the confirmed cases have been traced and are being monitored.

“We received nine alerts from the public; seven were investigated and none is worthy of follow up while two are still being investigated.”

The governor of Borno, Babagana Zulum, had on Monday, April 20 declared a complete lockdown of the state for 14 days as part of measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 in his stste.

The index case, a 56-year-old retired male nurse, was working with the Medicine Sans Frontier (MSF) in Pulka village of Gwoza local government when he became ill. He died two days after he was brought to the UMTH.Borno had on Sunday, April 19 recorded its index case who died while receiving treatment for a severe respiratory disease at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH).

Already, the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners are moving rapidly to help Borno in the fight against COVID-19.

Collins Owili, WHO’s northeast emergency manager in a statement on Thursday, April 23 said the effort will help the state to identify, test and treat cases of COVID-19 in order to prevent and control the further outbreak of the disease.

Meanwhile, the Galadima of Dikwa and father of former governor of Borno state and national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Modu Sheriff, recently died in his house.

He has since been buried according to Islamic rites with a mammoth crowd attending his funeral despite the lockdown in the state, prompting worries for health experts.