COVID -19 killed not less than 700 people and an Emir in Kano State confirmed dead with a strange illness within the last 8 days of COVID-19 pandemic

It has been confirmed that more than 80 percent of the strange deaths in Kano State recently is caused by COVID-19.  Not less than 700 people including the Emir of Rano Emirate are confirmed to have died in the last few days. The Emir of Rano in Kano State,  Alhaji Tafida Abubakar Ila Auta Bawo, is dead. He died on Saturday at a hospital in Kano at the age of 74. Turakin Rano and House of Representatives member representing Rano, Kibiya and Bunkure Federal Constituency, Alhaji Kabir Alhassan-Rururm, confirmed the death of the monarch.  Hundreds of people are reported to have died in the across 8 local governments in Kano State. Grave diggers initially raised concerns that they were burying a higher than usual number of bodies.  The cause of the death has been confirmed by the investigating taskforce to be majorly COVID-19 after autopsies were carried out on the corpses.
Presently, fear has gripped the minds of people of Kano State since state officials started testing for COVID-19 two weeks ago and one lab has had to close due to contamination. Samples are being sent to the capital, Abuja, which authorities say is causing a delay in announcing how many positive cases have been detected in the state.
Dr Sani Aliyu, who is the national co-ordinator for the presidential task force on Covid-19, says a team of five medical experts were deployed to Kano to facilitate in reopening the testing centre this week after it was fumigated.
Officials also open a second lab, at Bayero University, for testing for COVID-19. Sabitu Shaibu, the deputy head of the state task force on Covid-19, is hoping to release preliminary findings of the investigation by next week but believes that most of the rumoured 640 deaths are from natural causes and says the figure is below the average death rate for Kano. Hospital records which provide the only death register available are thought to provide lower numbers than the real picture across the state.
If not coronavirus, what else could be going on?
Private hospitals which provide for a significant part of health provision in the region have been closed due to coronavirus fears. This could mean a lack of support for those with existing conditions who may have died as a result.
Dr Nagoma Sadiq who works at the Aminu Kano Hospital, thinks this could be behind the additional deaths, but he is also not ruling out coronavirus.
"It's shocking to most of us that the count of the dead is alarming. But it's likely due to the reduction in the number of health institutions available in the state.
"Because there are a lot of hypertensive patients, diabetic patients, asthmatic patients, cancer patients, and they don't have much access to the hospitals. The lockdown is affecting everybody.
"Our poor majority don't even have a vehicle to take them to the hospitals."
However Covid-19 is known to be more dangerous for those with underlying health conditions, so it could be that the deaths are related to coronavirus. The only way to know for sure is to test for coronavirus.
Kano currently has 365 positive cases of coronavirus with 8 deaths.
Authorities are urging the public not to panic.