Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association in Kano State, Dr Sanusi Bala, has attributed the spread of Coronavirus in the state to ignorance and misinformation, stressing that religious leaders do not believe that the virus was real.
Bala says it was also alarming that Kano youth are violating the social distance rules by playing football, which they called “Corona Tournament” in their communities.
The NMA chief said there was the need to enforce the lockdown in the communities rather than concentrate on major roads and markets in Kano city.
According to him, people are only complying with the lockdown when it comes to the major public areas but added that the situation was different in the communities.
He said this in an interview with Channels Television on Wednesday monitored by SaharaReporters.
Bala said, “I think the means of communication (about the virus) matters because it is mostly done through social media and television; these are not available in some of these places.
“Some of the religious leaders do not really agree or believe in the Coronavirus spread and as such the information going round is different. Also, there is propaganda; many people are not complying because of misinformation.
“Our testing capacity in Kano is not adequate. Most cases that come into the hospitals, you will see them with clinical features and you want them to be tested but the response team is not on the ground or they don’t respond on time. This is challenging so we need a rapid response team in Kano.
“Yesterday, I received complaints from some of the doctors that have symptoms of fever and respiratory tract infections. As I am talking to you, it is so sad that there are some people whose samples were not taken. I have raised the alarm about this and this was not rectified.
“Kano youth are playing Corona tournament and you find people sitting around with no social distancing.
“From the situation on the ground, they (security) may not be adequate in number as Kano is quite a big city with a lot of streets, clusters and high-density population. More needs to be done in Kano, using the traditional rulers and going to the grassroots.
“The religious leaders and law enforcement agencies have to go down into the communities and engage these people so that they will see the challenges facing us.”
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