Ganduje hails Buhari over response to COVID-19 in Kano

Kano state government has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his response to the COVID-19 crisis in the state.

In a statement on Tuesday, Muhammad Garba, the commissioner for information, said Abdullahi Ganduje, governor of the state, commended the measures announced by the president.

Kano has witnessed a rise in deaths from unconfirmed causes in the past few days. In a nationwide broadcast on Monday night, Buhari declared a two-week total lockdown in the state as a part of efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19.

According to the commissioner, the federal directive, in addition to the efforts of the state government, would hopefully go a long way in mitigating the situation.

“The ongoing comprehensive investigation on the pandemic in the state, the deployment of additional federal government manpower, material and technical resources as announced by the President to strengthen and support the state government’s efforts would equally help in extenuating the pandemic,” he said.

Garba said while the test centres being managed by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in collaboration with the state government are now fully operational, the governor has assured residents that plans are underway to open three more centres, with a view to aggressively reinforcing testing and contact tracing measures to prevent the spread of the disease.

The commissioner said the enforcement of a total lockdown for a period of two weeks would help in controlling and containing the disease and also prevent the risk of further spread to neighbouring states.

He expressed government’s readiness to support security agencies in ensuring effective enforcement, and called on the people to cooperate and show understanding by strictly abiding by the lockdown order.

While acknowledging that the lockdown comes at a heavy cost, the commissioner said it still remains a significant way of preventing spread of the virus.

Garba also pleaded with the public to observe strict personal hygiene that include regular hand washing, physical distancing, wearing of face masks in public and avoiding large gatherings.