Covid-19: Kaduna expands community search

Kaduna State Ministry of Health has commenced active case search within communities in the nine Local Councils where Covid-19 infections have been confirmed.

The Commissioner for Health, Dr Amina Baloni revealed that, health officials are going into communities to search for and test persons that may show any of the symptoms of Covid-19.

According to her, as part of the active case search, 29,771 households have so far been visited. Health officials have tested 297 persons with symptoms such as fever and sore throat.

The Commissioner explained that the search for probable cases within communities is combined with targeted testing of contacts of confirmed cases and testing of persons who call with symptoms that meet the case definition.

Dr Baloni warned that Covid-19 case numbers in the State are likely to increase as more tests are conducted in more areas.

“Expanded testing would enable early identification of new cases and would help prevent further spread of the virus by getting infected persons to be isolated and treated earlier. It would also provide more accurate data to inform government decisions going forward”, she stressed.

It also clarified that, the active case search also presents the Ministry of Health the opportunity to search for other medical conditions and provide services to the communities.