The state task force
on COVID-19 made the revelation on Tuesday.
The Yobe State
Commissioner for Health, Dr. Muhammad Lawan Gana, who is also the vice-chairman
of the state COVID-19 Committee on Prevention and Control, disclosed this in
Damaturu while presenting “Yobe State Verbal Autopsy Preliminary Findings”
triggered by the recent reported mass deaths in the state.
Dr. Gana said those
that died were mostly elderly people.
He said the death
rate was observed for three weeks starting from the last week of April to date,
admitting that there were about 471 deaths reported within the period as
indicated by the findings.
“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
admitted.
He, however, noted
that the geospatial maps showed no clustering mortalities as 90% of those that
died had no travel history outside the state.
He said: “90 per
cent of the cases did not have symptoms that were consistent with COVID-19.
“It was noted that
16 of the 471 deceased in the five local government areas revealed someone with
similar symptoms. All the 16 persons were investigated and referred to health
facilities. 3 out of the 16 made the case definition of COVID-19 and 13 did not
meet the definition, they had other diseases.
“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 showed that, Damaturu had 86, Bade had 112, Potiskum 121 and Nguru had
152 deaths within the period.
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