Kogi State frowns at ‘pressure’ to declare COVID-19 cases

 

Kogi State Commissioner for Health, Dr Saka Haruna, says the state is under pressure to declare that it has COVID-19 cases when there is none.

The commissioner made the claims in a statement on Thursday.

He, however, said the state would not succumb to the pressure.

The statement followed a report, which claimed that four persons suspected to be COVID-19 patients had died at the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja, in the last one week.

He said that as the state commissioner for health, a member of the Governing Board of the FMC Lokoja, and also the incident manager for COVID-19 in the state, he had yet to be informed of any claimed cases.

“There is also a representative of the FMC Lokoja in the state’s squadron against COVID-19 /Lassa fever and never for once was any such case raised in our meetings.

The commissioner alleged that the aim of those putting pressure on the state was to politicise the situation as they are not happy that the current administration has been scored high by local and international observers on health care.

READ: Cross River, Kogi hold off as Nigeria records 196 new Coronavirus cases

He added, “First and foremost, it is imperative that the public realise that there is no state government that can deliberately put her people in harm’s way for whatever political reason and the current administration has been scored high by local and international observers on health. We have and will continue to put the health of our people as first priority.

“We have been in an annual fight against Lassa fever as the state is located in the Lassa fever belt, recording several cases with regrettable losses. We were first to establish a Biosafety Laboratory for Lassa fever in Nigeria and this year alone we have confirmed 30 cases of Lassa fever that was duly announced. To accuse the state of a cover-up of COVID-19 cases is mischievous and at best politically inclined.”

Kogi and Cross River states are the only two out of the 36 states of the federation and the FCT, that have yet to record any incident of coronavirus infection.

Nigeria has till date recorded 3,526 confirmed cases of the virus.