Nasir El-Rufai, governor of Kaduna State, has said that 21 out of the 61 Almajiris that were returned to the state tested positive for the novel coronavirus and that this vulnerable group now represents the biggest source of infections in the state.
El-Rufai, who said this while speaking at the digital edition of the Platform Nigeria, a programme organized by the Convent Christian Center to promote national dialogue on critical issues on Saturday, explained that the state has tested over 400 people so far.
Almajiri is a system of Islamic education practiced in northern Nigeria where young children are given to Islamic religious leaders for instruction. It is also the name for a young boy who is taught within this system.
Earlier, Amina Baloni, commissioner for health in Kaduna State, had said that Almajiri children deported from Kano state were among the five new cases of COVID-19 in the state.
The Kano state government had returned the children to their home states, including Kaduna, as part of measure to curtail the spread of the virus which has catapulted the state to the second-worst infected state in Nigeria, after Lagos.
Painting a dreary picture of the pandemic in the state, the governor said that prior to the pandemic the state had only 20 intensive Care Unit beds, and didn’t have a testing facility. Now, it has built two and is in the process of acquiring new testing facilities, he said.
