Kogi govt rejects NCDC’s claim, insists state still free of Covid-19

The government of Kogi State has insisted that the state remained free of Covid-19.

The government debunked the report on Wednesday, by the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC), which announced that the state recorded two cases of Covid-19.

Kogi and Cross River states had remained the only two states in Nigeria without any record of the dreaded virus.

However, the NCDC in its data released for Wednesday, May 27, said two cases of the virus were recorded in Logo State.

But in a statement on Thursday morning, the Kogi State Commissioner of Health, Saka Haruna Audu rejected the NCDC report.

He said Kogi State government had developed “full testing capacity” and “conducted hundreds of tests” which returned negative.

READ ALSO: COVID-19 testing in Kogi has been a huge challenge –NMA

Noting that the state would not accept “fictitious COVID-19 claims”, the commissioner said:

“Kogi State till this very moment is Covid-19 free. We have developed full testing capacity and have conducted hundreds of tests so far which have come back negative.

“We have also continued to insist that we will not be a party to any fictitious COVID-19 claims which is why we do not recognise any COVID-19 test conducted by any Kogite outside the boundaries of the State except those initiated by us.

“Any attempt to force us to announce a case of COVID-19 will be vehemently rejected.”

He then called on the people of the state to maintain all the necessary measures to prevent the spread of the disease into the state.

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