By Yusuf Abdulsalam – April 20, 2020
Kano State has witnessed spate of unexplained deaths in the past three days, and government is yet to come up with modalities to arrest the situation.
For instance, attendants and undertakers at the Dandolo Cemetery in Goron Dutse within the metropolis told Judicial Sketch that 61 dead were buried between Saturday and Sunday alone. Forty three were buried on Saturday, with 18 more buried on Sunday, they confirmed.
Also, at the Gyadi-gyadi Cemetery in Court Road within the metropolis, 31 were buried on Saturday alone.
The Farm Centre Cemetery also within the metropolis witnessed 27 burials just on Saturday.
The Abattoir Cemetery around Kofar Mazugal in the metropolis saw the burial of 13 people from Zango Quarters alone within three days last week.
Between Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Chedi, Ciromawa, Dorayi, Sharifai, Zage, an unascertained number of people died and were buried at the Abattoir Cemetery.
Kano State ministry of health is yet to make any official statement on the rising death incidences, but a health official at Zage who claimed to have attended to a number of patients, said those deaths were unrelated to COVID-19 as he explained that none of the cases he attended to came with a symptom related to the pandemic.
He said a number of them “have high blood pressure, diabetics, ulcer and even malaria. I noticed that some are really short of the usual medications they use to manage their ailments. They are equally short of food, so malnutrition set in.
“Now, with the lock-down in effect, and health officials in primary healthcare centres absconding from work, when any complication arises, it leads to death in no time,” he explained.
Attempts to get the state commissioner of health to comment on the matter were unsuccessful, as his phone number was switched off.