The Gombe State Government on Thursday, August 20, 2020 announced the discovery of nine new COVID-19 patient among Senior Secondary school students sitting for the ongoing West Africa Senior Secondary School Examination, WASSCE.
The Chairman of the State Task Force on COVID-19, Prof. Idris Mohammed disclosed this while briefing newsmen, said the affected student are currently writing their exams from the isolation center in the State Specialist Hospital in Gombe.
Mohammed explained that nine of the ten affected students are from Government Girls Secondary School, Doma and one from Kumo.
He said ” all the COVID-19 positive students are writing their examinations under the strict supervision of all the relevant authorities including WAEC Supervisors, the State ministry of education and the State Covid-19 Taskforce”.
“Out of 1,200 people tested, 684 were confirmed positive and out of the 684, 594 were treated and discharged. We now have 67 active cases in the Isolation centre, while 23 deaths had been recorded”.
Mohammed added that all of the recorded deaths, died outside hospital after their samples were taking for confirmation.
In his contribution, the State Commissioner for Education, Dr. Abu Dahiru said the State Government is concentrating on strict Covid-19 test for returning Unity schools students because they are coming from the entire nineteen Northern States.
“Some of these students are coming from States like Kano, Abuja and Kaduna with very high number of Covid-19 positive cases, so we have to make sure that they are tested quickly before they start joining the community,” he said.
Olaoluwa Adekunle
