Covid-19 lockdown – another 14 days

Just as I had hoped, President Muhammadu Buhari this Monday extended the lockdown in Lagos, Abuja, and Ogun states after reviewing the nation’s struggle to contain the raging coronavirus, Covid-19. During these past 14 days, we have watched the figures climb steadily peaking at this summary Monday night – 343 confirmed cases reported, with 91 […]

Just as I had hoped, President Muhammadu Buhari this Monday extended the lockdown in Lagos, Abuja, and Ogun states after reviewing the nation’s struggle to contain the raging coronavirus, Covid-19. During these past 14 days, we have watched the figures climb steadily peaking at this summary Monday night – 343 confirmed cases reported, with 91 treated and discharged, and with 10 deaths. When set against the mounting deaths of hundreds of thousands in the US, UK and the rest of Europe, Iran, and India, we are perplexed. Are we truly dealing with Covid-19? What could Nigeria then be doing right?

It may be impossible for President Muhammadu Buhari to have impressed already decided political adversaries, but it can not be taken away from him, that his management of the Covid-19  crisis through a Presidential Task Force headed by Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, is notably commendable. It is not in him to be as dramatically inspiring as Donald Trump or Boris Johnson, but in his “old Baba wisdom”, Nigeria’s numbers are so amazingly low, and the surviving and recovered victims so high that we must commend the president for a job well done so far.

Yet Nigeria can not afford to be complacent because the numbers keep rising. We should be alarmed. The Katsina case is disconcerting. Katsina state rose from a touted NO CASE OF COVID 19 and suddenly reported a FIRST DEATH! A private medical practitioner based in Daura, Katsina State, Dr Aliyu Yakubu, reportedly died from the coronavirus infection, which he contracted having travelled from Daura to Lagos and Abuja through his home state Kogi and back. He owned a private clinic in Daura and reports say that when symptoms emerged, he presented himself to a military medical facility where his condition degenerated and he died.

Dr. Yakubu’s death presented Katsina state with an immediate urgency to trace his contacts beyond his family and friends, his staff at the clinic, the patients he was managing, and the clients he consulted for since returning to Daura. Then those who handled his corpse and particularly the fellow Muslim faithful who administered the ritual of the Janaza washing of the corpse, and on to his final internment. A total of 23 contacts were harvested, screened and while 3 were returned positive, the rest were subjected to the normal observation for 14 days. All of these have their own circle of individual contacts, a nightmarish situation for contact tracers. Our own sad mishap in handling the Katsina case is that Governor Aminu Bello Masari made the announcement giving victim’s names and forcing the widow and her children into an immediate denial. No one should reveal the identity and status of the patient except the patient himself. The crass denial and the video from the two sons of the late doctor now in circulation, are a result of Masari’s over the bar shot. He had even been planning to relax the already unserious lockdown when the incident suddenly manifested. Danger is if contacts with the victims (23 known) continue to widen, Katsina is a danger state.

The family of the deceased doctor especially the children are in trauma. They need help, if need be, forced restraint and treatment because though asymptomatic now, they are likely to come down with fevers and difficulty in breathing in a crisis situation soon in any case. It is hoped that a lesson has been learnt and other governors will exercise better response. No one should reveal the identity of a positive person except the person himself.

The Katsina turn of events is startling more because the state has recorded the first incident of community transmission – an incident not connected to the index case. A local security man who travelled by public transport from Lagos to Katsina and eventually came down with the ailment. Contact tracing for such a victim is a nightmare and it is feared that the Katsina scenario may be replicated by other Northern states who are yet to record any incidents.

Kano state also recorded a startling incident when a retired diplomat with no recent foreign travel history returned to the state from Lagos, Abuja, and Kaduna and tested positive to the virus. The former ambassador’s blood sample, alongside those of nine others were taken to the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital COVID-19 laboratory for test.

The retired ambassador alone was confirmed as positive and this became officially the first confirmed case of #COVID-19 in Kano. As can be seen, community transmission is well underway. This is the reason I waited for the president’s broadcast yesterday, my heart in my mouth hoping that he would not lift the lockdown. If we do not restrict movement, the dam will burst and flood the communities with carriers and distributors who show no symptoms. The effort of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 have served well so far, we will sadly spoil a good record with tragic consequences if we do not restrict movement and enforce social distancing nationwide immediately .

Attitude especially in Northern Nigeria could very sadly do us in. Northern Governors except Malam Nasiru el Rufa’i in Kaduna have generally allowed a loose lockdown. This is wrong. First, we generally do not believe coronavirus is real. We say till we see it. Then the positive victims engage in denial till they come down with life threatening symptoms and the battle to save the lives begins. Sadly, the virus would then have been spread to loved associates, further compounding the situation.  My worry is that we have a culture burden. First, our poverty level is such that a lockdown could “save from the coronavirus, but kill with the hunger virus”. Governments are hence caught in between. We are by nature communal people living off the earth surviving all kinds of diseases treated sometimes naturally. We also believe in medications that have not been given any clinical trials. Even as I write this update, I have in mind how the media space is saturated by people of different faiths and passions expounding untested theories and swearing that those concoctions will work against the virus. Of course, no known vaccine or cure has been found yet. Victims are managed such that the body fights the disease through the term of the potency of the virus.

I am terrified to notice that in spite of all our success at managing the pandemic, developed countries have evacuated their people from our country. What do they know that we do not know? And I have this uncanny feeling that the Chinese are here because they know that our situation is precarious and more likely to get worse. God forbid.