Bauchi State government has denied reports published by some online media that the state governor, Bala Mohammad has tested negative to Coronavirus.
Alh. Baba Tela, Deputy Governor of the state who is also the Chairman of the State Task Force Committee on COVID-19, denied this while speaking in Bauchi on Monday.
The Deputy Governor said the result of the latest test on the Governor is still being awaited.
He said, “We don’t rely on what we hear or what we see on social media. The governor is doing very well, I’m sure most of you saw him on Skype the other day and yesterday he had a teleconference meeting at the Nigerian Governors Forum.
“It’s exactly two weeks now since he went into self isolation, and the protocol is for samples to be taken, we don’t rely on what we hear or see on social media or from the reporter of Daily Nigerian if he is here.
“We rely on what the NCDC tells us and we have taken the sample and we are waiting for results from the NCDC and unless the result comes from the NCDC, as government, we will not make comments on it,” he said.
The Commissioner added that the State is tracing 305 contacts of the index case and others reported by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Bauchi state has six cases of Corona virus victims confirmed by NCDC.
Tela said all the 305 contacts had been located and their samples had been taken to Abuja for evaluation.
“We have been tracing all the contacts from the first index person to the last one reported by the NCDC; we have been tracing 305 contacts.
“We have listed all these contacts and they have all been contacted and we have taken all their samples,” the deputy governor said.
Tela, however, said the state government was not satisfied with the length of time it took to get a test done, adding that a sample would have to be taken down to Abuja where people from other states were already on the queue for results of their tests.
He added that the state government was working towards having a testing centre in Bauchi state.