In a State wide broadcast on Monday, the governor of Borno State, Babagana Zulum, disclosed that it has traced 99 persons who may have had contact with its index case.

The governor noted that all citizens of the State have a shared obligation to ensure this disease does not spread.

As part of measures, the state’s High powered team has traced 99 persons that believed to have made contacts with our index case. 35 of them were traced in Pulka town of Gwoza local government area and 64 in Maiduguri.

A surveillance and case management team has also been deployed to Pulkawhile an organization, to which the index case had association, is to quarantine all persons who had contact with the index case. The state’s high powered team is ensuring this standard procedure is strictly complied with.

I will like to clarify that tracing 97 interest persons does not amount to having 97 cases of Corona virus. We however await results from samples collected from these contacts, hoping we get good results.
Fellow citizens, as we have seen from the wild-fire effects of Corona virus, one index case is enough reason for very serious concern.

We are taking far reaching measures to ensure the virus does not take any more or health concern in any part of Borno State.

In the exercise of the powers conferred on me, I have signed an executive order, declaring Covid-19 a dangerous disease. For this, I am hereby directing a lockdown that will require cessation of all movements in Borno State for an initial period of 14 days with effect from 10:30pm on Wednesday, 22nd of April, 2020.

All citizens in Borno State are to stay in their homes. This means all public gatherings are restricted while offices and businesses in Borno State are to be fully closed during this period. Security and intelligence agencies have been briefed for enforcement.

Government will use this period of restriction to accelerate the tracing and isolation of persons who have been in contact with the index case.

However, the restriction will not apply to providers of essential services, which the high powered team for prevention and control of Covid-19 in Borno State will make public.

The high powered team under His Excellency, the Deputy Governor, has been directed to as from tomorrow, Tuesday, commence a daily centralized media briefing at 4pm. Location for the daily briefing will be announced by the team for the access of journalists who will be among those to be given permission on essential services.

The high powered team will on daily basis provide citizens with timely updates and information on access to essential needs such as food, medical services and automated banking services.

Government will continue to observe developments as we hope to make progresses in concerted efforts to contain spread of the deadly virus.

Fellow citizens, we are very much aware of the peculiar challenges we face in Borno State. We intend to be very particular about Internally Displaced Persons. We will continue to support them We shall as time passes, consider social interventions for vulnerable citizens. We recognize that the decision to impose restriction will cause difficulties and alter the plans we make differently.
However, as Covid-19 has reminded us, health comes ahead of everything we seek.

We have taken necessary measures with the determination and hope to secure the lives of citizens in Borno State.

We pray and hope that these measures, amongst other steps we are adopting, will contribute significantly in controlling the spread of Corona virus in Borno Stat

However, giving further details on the development in a statement on Monday, the Deputy Governor Umar Kadafur disclosed that the index case was a health worker with the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) – Doctors Without Border; an international organisation offering humanitarian service in the North East.

Until his death on Saturday last week, the patient worked in Pulka, a district in Gwoza Local Government Area of Borno State housing thousands of displaced persons.

Kadafur, who is also the Chairman of the Borno State High-Powered Committee on the Prevention and spread of COVID-19, told reporters that 99 people of interest have been traced.

He explained that 35 people had contact with the index case in Pulka where he was working before he developed symptoms while the remaining 64 were his contacts in Maiduguri who attended to him in a hospital or had contact with his remains.

“He (the patient) was a 56-year-old citizen of Borno who was brought in from Pulka with features of severe respiratory disease”.

“He was managed in the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) but unfortunately, he succumbed to the disease,” the deputy governor said.

He added, “Nasal swab specimen was collected from the body, which tested positive for corona virus disease at the COVID-19 reference laboratories in the UMTH and validated by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).”

According to Kadafur, the government is tracing other contacts of the patients and putting necessary measures to prevent further spread of the disease.

He noted that they have deployed a team on surveillance and case management to Pulka for further investigation and sample collection adding that the MSF whom the patient worked for in Pulka has been directed to provide line list, profile and quarantine all his contacts and submit same to the committee for action.