The Rivers State COVID-19 Inter-Ministerial Committee on Enlightenment, last Friday, took its campaign to some major supermarkets in the state known to attract relatively high patronage by the public to ascertain their level of compliance to the state government’s directives on measures aimed at preventing Coronavirus infection.
Speaking at the end of an inspection of four of such supermarkets, the Commissioner for Chieftaincy and Community Affairs, Barrister Olisa Elloka Tasie-Amadi, who led the inspection team of the committee, noted that at various levels, all of the supermarkets visited showed clear appreciation of an awareness of the need to prevent the Coronavirus pandemic.
The issue, according to him, was, however, in terms of compliance to preventive measures as advocated by the committee since it commenced enlightenment and awareness creation campaign, last month.
Briefing newsmen at the end of the inspection, Tasie-Amadi said, “We are here for two reasons, mainly, primary enlightenment. We thank God for where we are today in Rivers State on the COVID-19 crisis situation, but we need to also see that we maintain certain protocols to ensure that if anybody has the virus, or if anybody comes in with the virus, or there is a virus anywhere, it does not spread”.
He explained that beyond the emphasis on regular washing of hands and using hand sanitizer, such businesses that attract high patronage from the public as supermarkets, need to be enlightened enough to be in good stead to take more precautionary measures.
“We do know that we are told to use sanitizers, but if I sanitize my hand, I more or less protect myself. When my hand comes in contact with my face, I only prevent the virus on my hand from my face when I touch my face.