After sneaking into the State, a middle aged man, identified as Mallam Yunusa Idris, has been whisked to an isolation center in Minna by the Niger State Task Force on COVID-19.
It was reliably gathered that the suspected case, who sneaked into Zumba Community in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State from Kano last week Tuesday, was a driver to a former staff of the Segmentary National Control Centre, Engr. Mohammed Gumel, who was said to have died in Kano on Thursday last week for an undisclosed illness.
Investigations have it that he sneaked into the community, which hosts the Shiroro hydro power dam, on Tuesday night after the three-day fidau prayer for his late boss.
Worried after hearing that Yunusa’s boss had died in Kano for an undisclosed illness, members of the community immediately alerted officials of the hydro dam and the Police.
Subsequently, he was invited for some interrogations, where he eventually admitted that his boss died of COVID 19 related complications in Kano and decided to return back home after the three days fidau prayers.
Yunusa also admitted that he drove his late boss all through the period of his treatment at a private hospital until his death last week Thursday.
Alarmed by this information, the State COVID-19 Task Force hurriedly dispatched an ambulance to Zumba to pick him up, and was driven straight to one of the isolation centers in Minna and his sample taken and sent to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control in Abuja to ascertain his status.
It was further gathered gathered that the Task Force has begun contact tracing for possible isolation of all his contacts since he arrived the community to contain possible community spread of the virus.
Confirming the incident, the Vice Chairman of the Task Force on COVID-19 and Commissioner for Health and Hospital Management Services, Dr. Mohammed Makun Sidi, said: “Yes we are aware of the case and he has been isolated from the community.
“He is right in one of our isolation centers in Minna.
“We have equally taken his sample and sent to the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control in Abuja to ascertain his status.”