As part of its preparations against the outbreak of the Coronavirus,
Benue state Government has approved the sum of N10 million for the
purchase of protective equipments.
The Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Mrs. Ngunan Addingi disclosed this after an Executive Council meeting in Government House, Makurdi.
According to her, a place has also been earmarked at Agan Primary Health Care centre in Makurdi in case there is an outbreak or a suspected case saying it will be a place for testing and isolation of
the victims.
Recall that Government had set up an emergency response committee on
Coronavirus.
The commissioner said the EXCO approved that the committee be expanded to include the Executive Secretary for Primary Health Care, the Chairman of Nigeria Medical Association, the Special Adviser and Personal Assistant to the Governor on Primary Health Care, the
Chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, the Chairman of
Jaamatu Nasir Islam, a member of the National Union of Road Transport
Workers, NURTW, the Nigerian Labour Congress , NLC and a member of the
Civil Society Organization, CSO.
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She explained that the expansion was meant to help curtail and send
out information that should get to the general public in terms of what
should be guarded against in preventing the coronavirus.
Asked if government will screen every foreigner living in the state, Addingi said that would not be necessary adding, “you cannot go round quarantining every foreigner living in Benue just because you want to curtail a disease that has not even gotten into Benue. All we are doing are preventive measures to ensure that if it gets here, we can nip it in the board. We do not have any case here yet.”
The commissioner also stated that government had noticed that hawkers
and beggars are constituting nuisance in the state and as a result EXCO also approved that the Ministry of Women Affairs should chair a committee where the ministry of Youths and Sports, Environment, Information and others should meet and find ways to mitigate the movement of hawkers and beggars from place to place.
She said this was also one way of curtailing the spread of the coronavirus saying “we want those selling things to stay in one place so that anyone who contacts the virus does not go round spreading the
disease.”
