TRUTH ABOUT THE RUMOURED MASS DEATH IN KANO
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There has been rumoured mass death of the elderly in Kano with individuals likening it with COVID-19 pandemic. In separate reports by people and media outlets, the estimated number of the said mortality have been placed at about 43 people by @MSII_dynasty),

60 people by @BTBreakingTimes

and 150 by Daily trust.

It is significant to note the variation of the above figures among themselves, also varying from the widely circulated voice notes and videos from the so-called cemetery guards who were said to have carried out a headcount of the corpses themselves.

The cemeteries reported having received these dead bodies are Abbatior, Courtroad and the popular Dandolo cemetery.

Demographically Kano population has been estimated to stand at about 13 million in 2016 by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) with a population density of 500-1000 people per sq km. The NBS recorded 1003, 342, 313 cases of death in Kano as of 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively

The national average for mortality in Nigeria has been reported to stand at 9.6 per 1000 lives in 2018, analyzing that nd with the current state of health facilities nt operating at full capacity, the reason for the surge in d number of death is apparently clear (if the is true)

and this reason is nevertheless showing no connection with the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic.

Now a quick question that will help you infer whether this rumoured death is true, due to COVID-19 or otherwise;

Why are most or all of the rumoured death within the environs of the Kano old city (Cikin Badala)?

Is it that there are no old people in the other areas out of Kano old city or what?

How can death from COVID-19 in Kano be more than the entire National cumulative death toll?

Last time I checked people from inside the Kano old city don’t even travel that much. The people in the outskirts are supposed to be affected more.

Nigeria's current epidemiological map from the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) shows that Nigeria (Kano state inclusive) is currently addressing other epidemics such as cerebrospinal meningitis (CSM), Lassa fever, cholera and malaria among others.

It is important to know that some of these disease conditions have a higher mortality rate than COVID-19 and that viral CSM and Lassa fever which result from a viral infection can mimic the symptoms of coronavirus.

Borrowing from the words of My teacher Dr Ashiru Hamza (A health journalist and a public health and development expert):