The Borno State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Salisu Kwaya-Bura, on Monday, said four more COVID-19 patients have been treated and discharged, bringing the number of those so far discharged to 18 in the state.
Kwaya-Bura, who is also the Secretary of the State High Powered Response Team on COVID-19, made this known while briefing newsmen in Maiduguri on Monday.
He said the state had also set up an additional 500-bed capacity Isolation Centre to contain any increase in the number of cases.
According to him, the initiative was to forestall any development that could overwhelm the already existing 100-bed capacity Isolation Centres at the Brigadier Abba Kyari Memorial Hospital and the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital.
“The 500-bed capacity isolation Centre will be put to function in phases as the need arises,” Kwaya-Bura said.
“It has come to our notice that some laboratories are engaged in the dastardly act. Any place caught will not only be closed, but those involved would be prosecuted in line with the existing law,” he added.
He lauded the commitment of health workers in the fight against the pandemic and assured them that the state would soon act on their revised allowance.
The commissioner said that apart from distributing over 100,000 face masks to residents of Maiduguri, the state government also provided Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) to all hospitals in the state.”
Borno has recorded 180 COVID-19 cases with 21 deaths so far.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has announced another 248 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing to 4,399 confirmed cases in the country as of Sunday night.