Lassa fever kills 19 as Bauchi discharges three COVID-19 patients

Lalong extends Plateau lockdown as mobile courts convict 222
Bauchi State Government has announced that 19 people have lost their lives to Lassa fever in the state.

The Deputy Governor and Chairman of the state’s Taskforce on Disease Control, Baba Tela, disclosed this to newsmen yesterday.

He explained that out of the six cases in the state, four patients, including the governor, had been discharged.

“We now have only two patients,” he added.

Tela said that one of the active cases tested negative. “If his second test comes out negative, we will discharge him.”

On Lassa fever, he put the number of casualties at 19, adding that 48 others were under medication and recovering “very well”.

The state has approved N25 million for the control of Lassa fever while N1.98 million was approved for procurement of virus transport medium (VTM), he noted.

Meanwhile, Plateau State Governor Simon Lalong has announced the extension of lockdown of the state by one week, to meet the stipulated quarantine period of 14 days.

He, however, relaxed it from Thursday (yesterday) to Sunday to enable the citizens re-stock their homes before it continues on Monday.

Lalong said though the state had not recorded any case of COVID-19, precautionary measures “must be taken” to prevent it.

In a state-wide broadcast, the governor said, “The total lockdown has been extended to midnight of Thursday April 23, 2020 to meet the medically-stipulated quarantine period of 14 days.
 
“However, beginning from 11p.m. of Wednesday, April 15, to midnight of Sunday, April 19, 2020, the total lockdown will be relaxed to enable people go out to re-stock their homes.”

The governor also announced that the testing laboratory at the National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI), Jos, with the capacity to test over 1,000 cases per day, was ready to attend to cases.

Also in Plateau, the two mobile courts sitting at West of Mines to trial violators of the lockdown order have convicted 222 offenders and confiscated many vehicles.

The presiding judge of Mobile Court 1, Roseline Baraje, convicted 118, while Rita Selkur of Court 2 convicted 104. Those convicted were either fined or deployed for community service.

Among the convicts are nine persons coming from Abuja, including Abdulrasheed Ali, a driver conveying Vanguard and Punch newspapers to Jos. They were placed on 14 days quarantine.

“I helped the three others who were stranded because armed robbers attacked them and could not proceed because their car developed problem. I decided to carry them in my vehicle since they were coming to Jos,” he said.