The Governor of Katsina State, Alhaji Aminu Masari has confirmed the death of a medical doctor, Aliyu Yakubu who was affected by the Coronavirus.

The deceased, aged 60 from Kogi State, died at the Nigeria Air Force (NAF) Reference Hospital, Daura on Saturday.

According to PRNigeria, speaking at a press briefing on Tuesday evening, the governor said the deceased owned a private hospital in Daura and had visited his home state, Kogi, from where he travelled to Lagos some weeks ago.

Mr Masari said after returning to the state, the deceased fell sick and was admitted at the military hospital, where he died few hours after his admission.

He said the deceased samples were taken to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) for diagnosis before his death and was diagnosed positive to Coronavirus.

“We have received bad news of COVID-19. The deceased samples showed COVID-19 positive.

“Before his death, he was also diagnosed for hepatitis and hypertension, three years ago,” he said.

The governor said the state medical response team was in Daura taking samples of all those that had contact with the man before his death.

Meanwhile, it was gathered that the health condition of the patient had deteriorated before he was taken to the military hospital.

A source close to the hospital said that the hospital management could not reject the patient because the NAF hospital was designated by the Nigerian military as one of the isolation centres for COVID-19.

“The late medical doctor sought admission in the facility having realised that the hospital is one of the 17 isolation and treatment centres earmarked by the Nigerian military that are spread across the six geopolitical zones of the country.

“The medical specialists and health-workers at the hospital were extremely cautious but highly professional while attending to the patient considering some of the symptoms he had exhibited,” the source added.

The NAF Reference Hospital in Daura, the hometown of President Muhammadu Buhari was commissioned in August 2019 to provide healthcare service delivery for military personnel on active duty, especially in theatre of operations and also residents of Daura and environs in Katsina State.

During the commissioning of the 60-bed reference hospital President Buhari said equipment provided in the hospital would minimize the need for medical tourism and help to save the much needed foreign exchange that could be channelled into other sectors of the economy.

The hospital is equipped with the state-of-the-art medical equipment for radio-diagnostics, cancer screening, dialysis and laboratory diagnosis.