Borno’s Covid-19: From “no new case” to NCDC’s announcement of “18 new cases”- Here is what happened.
Borno’s response team did announced, during its evening briefing yesterday, that as at 24 hours, that is 6pm of Friday to 6pm of Saturday, there was no new case of coronavirus and that was the record.
So, how come NCDC announced 18 new cases at night?
At all times, many samples collected from traced contacts are with test laboratories in Borno. What came out before the briefing were results of 17 samples from Pulka, all of which tested negative.
However, during the night, which was hours after our own briefing, more results came out from Borno’s Covid-19 test laboratory and the results were communicated to the NCDC. The laboratory works round the clock with samples always at hand.
Remember that on Friday, the NCDC reported Borno had 12 cases, whereas the cases were 15 from our record. That happened because of communication gap, which has been filled and that was why the NCDC got last night’s update.
How can Borno and NCDC’s figures tally everyday?
Unless Borno’s response team and the NCDC announce results at exactly the same time, figures may not tally given the fact that the Covid-19 laboratory is supposed to be working continuously, with new results coming out.
The options:
The state response team may have to stop giving laboratory updates, so that such updates only come from the NCDC. Doing that will of course amount to somewhat abdication of duty to the people of Borno, but could be less than the confusion of citizens getting two figures. Ideally, the citizens should hear state of affairs from its government. Nevertheless, the response team can still focus on other issues outside numbers of positive and negative cases from the Covid-19 laboratory.
The other option is for the state response team to, in addition to its daily evening media briefings, introduce NIGHT TIME statistical update, which can be released minutes before the NCDC’s updates, because when citizens hear news on emergencies from their government, their confidence is better enhanced than to hear about such from another source, even though, the source in this case, is the NCDC, which is a national rallying point at a time of national health crisis like the one inspired by Covid-19.
Insha’Allah, media component of high powered response will consult and convey a decision during Sunday’s evening briefing.
Please get in direct touch if you still need more information. We are to serve you.
Thank you for following our media updates.
Isa Gusau (for the team).
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