COVID-19: ‘Kano Cemetery Receives 18 Corpses In 4 Hours’

A Nigerian professor, Usman Yusuf, has revealed some of the horrifying messages he received after raising the alarm on what he described as the unfolding “monumental disaster” in Kano due to the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the state.

Yusuf, a professor of Haematology-Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplantation, had warned in an article that Kano risked becoming the epicentre of Coronavirus in Africa.

He said since publishing the article, some Kano residents had flooded his inbox with messages on what they had been passing through since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the state.

One of the residents, according to him, explained how the corpse they took for burial in one of the cemeteries in the state was the 18th to be admitted as early as 9:30 a.m. The deceased was said to have presented symptoms of Coronavirus before her death.

The professor said, “It is now common knowledge in Kano that NCDC officials in the city are not responding to people’s distress calls because they are short-staffed and have no working materials or Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

This unacceptable situation has resulted in many of them being infected by the virus, resulting in the closure of the only test center in Kano.

“Below is an example of one of the many distress calls and text messages I have been receiving from unknown Kano residents: “Good afternoon Prof., One of my staff lost his mother today Friday 24th, April 2020 to circumstances similar to COVID-19 with (sudden fever, coughing, and rapid breathing).

When we went to bury her ​at 9.30 am​,we discovered that the mother’s body was the 18th to be buried since dawn (a time span of 3-4 hours). Why is the Kano State Governor denying COVID-19 deaths in Kano? People should please speak up and get us help.”

Usman said there were also reliable reports indicating that cemetery workers in Kano, “have been censored and directed by State officials not to give any interviews divulging the number of burials.”

The professor also lamented the case of a 70-year-old grandmother who allegedly lost her son-in-law who presented symptoms of Coronavirus due to alleged negligence of the Kano State Government.

He said the woman’s case, “sums up the feeling of helplessness of people in the city. She was venting her frustrations at NCDC officials in Kano who switched off their phones and those at their HQ. in Abuja that refused to return her calls when she desperately needed them. She narrated how her son-in-law was initially taken to a Private Hospital then transferred to Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) where he died shortly after arrival.”

Usman berated the Ganduje administration for “downplaying and denying these deaths just like officials in Wuhan, China did at the beginning of the pandemic.”