TheCable

Bile Nuhu, Gombe state epidemiologist, disclosed this to journalists on Tuesday.

TheCable had reported how some students taking the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in the state tested positive for the disease.

Nuhu said 19 out of the 22 final year students who contracted COVID-19 had recovered.

“We are left with three now. We look forward to screening all the students running into 10,000. For now only students in the final year and exiting classes are the ones in school,” he said.

The state epidemiologist said the government has established isolation spaces across 16 out of the 20 boarding schools in the state.

He said the isolation spaces are meant to handle mild COVID-19 cases, while severe cases will be transferred to the state isolation centres.

Nuhu added that the state government is working towards upgrading the structures in the four remaining boarding schools in order to meet the minimum requirements for establishing school isolation spaces.

“Out of the 20 boarding schools in Gombe state, we used the checklist that looks at the structures on the ground and the components in the structures that are ideal that can serve as isolation spaces for just mild cases not severe cases. Severe cases have to go to isolation centres,” he said.

“So we have established 16 isolation spaces out of twenty 20 boarding schools because the remaining four didn’t meet up with the criteria for school isolation spaces.

“We looking at how to upgrade the other four that have not been able to meet the criteria, both the ministries of health and education are collaborating to see how the basic minimum criteria needed for establishment of school isolation spaces are attained.”