The Borno 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 on Monday while briefing newsmen in Maiduguri.
He said the state had also set up an additional 500-bed capacity Isolation Centre to contain any increase in the number of cases.
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He said 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 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.
He noted that no patient was in critical condition for now, but warned private hospitals and laboratories against handling patients with COVID-19 symptoms, adding that anyone caught will be prosecuted.
“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 extant law, ” Kwaya-Bura said.
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.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that so far Borno had recorded 180 COVID-19 cases with 21 deaths.