The Federal Government on Monday commended the Cross River State government for its pragmatic efforts in containing the spread of COVID-19 in the state.
The government’s position was made known by Omobolanle Olowu, team lead of the Ministerial Task Force to Cross River State on the COVID-19 pandemic, while being hosted by Betta Edu, the state’s commissioner for health.
Olowu, who led the six-man team to Cross River State, disclosed that while other states were not fully committed, the state government took the bull by the horns and this partly explains while the state has not been ravaged by the ongoing global pandemic.
“I commend the governor for his proactiveness because the state started in January while the other states were still dilly-dallying and living in denial that it will not come to them and it is only for people who travel abroad,” Olowu said.
“But Cross River State took the bull by the horns and seeing the figures in America, UK, it said we will not sit down and fold our arms and before we wake up you will have cases coming in. You proactively started, shut down your borders, started producing masks and even screening which I want to say, well done and congratulations,” she said.
Olowu said the above measures must be the reason why the state has yet to record a case. She congratulated the governor for the garment factory that has produced 1.5 million masks up to date and distributed free of charge to the citizens of the state.
“I will take it back to the president and the minister that the issue of face mask is something that is taken very seriously in the state and we saw it even at the airport, and the fact that a task force was even set up to enforce the use of face mask is commendable,” Olowu said.
She said the fact that the state’s garment factory is producing personal protective equipment (PPE) is something commendable as it is something that is needed and wanted all over the world.
“Everybody is looking for PPEs and yet it is right under our nose, so we will take this back to the minister and even the president to see how the garment factory will be patronised and even make it a campaign that even people from outside the country can come and patronise,” she said.
Nwachukwu William, a representative of the NCDC, also applauded the state for its efforts in containing the spread of COVID-19, particularly in the area of prevention.
He said the NCDC has been in the forefront of containing the outbreak of the virus in the country and pledged support for the state, particularly in the area of surveillance of the international borders to protect the state from being affected by the scourge of the COVID-19.
Earlier in her presentation, Betta Edu, state commissioner for health and chairman of the state’s COVID-19 Response Team, gave a timeline of the steps taken by the government to forestall the outbreak of the virus in the state.
She disclosed that the government set up an Emergency Operations Centre as early as January to help forestall the outbreak of the virus in the state in addition to recruiting 3,000 primary health care workers to take the message to the grassroots as well as 1,500 town criers.
In addition, the government introduced the ‘no mask no movement’ policy, while 1.5 million face masks as well as 200,000 locally produced hand sanitisers were distributed free of charge to all residents of the state.
She appealed for capacity building in the area of surveillance so as to prevent the uncontrolled migration of people into the state, as well as the establishment of a Vaccine Research and Production Factory in the state.
