The Cross River State Government says it has distributed 5,200 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to the Calabar airport, Nigeria Port Authority, borders and other sensitive locations as part of its proactive effort to contain the dreaded Coronavirus.
Commissioner for Health in the state, Dr Betta Edu, disclosed this yesterday in Calabar while briefing newsmen on the level of preparedness by the state.
She listed the equipment to include, face mask, hand gloves, scrub, hand sanitisers and thermometers.
Edu said officials of the health ministry had been deployed to the airport, borders, port and motor parks to enlighten the people on the need for personal hygiene and also screen all immigrants entering the state from various locations.
She explained that the state government was aware of the influx of refugees from Southern Cameroons into the state, gave assurance that they had mounted surveillance on all borders including jetties.
“Our borders across the state are presently being monitored by security operatives as well as medical experts.
“This is beyond politics, it is the life of Nigerians, so everyone should work with us. In the creeks, we have some security operatives that are working with us with a view to ensuring that our people are sensitised on how to prevent the disease.
“We have a permanent isolation centre at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, newly built and a completely isolated area.
“We have other temporal ones at the General Hospital Ogoja and Calabar respectively”, she said.
The Commissioner stated that the ministry was currently carrying out sensitisation in all the primary healthcare facilities across the state, adding that the channel of communication for timely report of any strange cases were open throughout the day.
“Governor Ben Ayade has provided two facilities, one at the Ogoja General Hospital and the other at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital to quarantine any suspected person.
“I want to laud the Army, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, Nigeria Port Authority, Health Departments and the Federal Ministry of Health for their cooperation.
”The state is doing its best in preventing the outbreak of Lassa Fever and the deadly Coronavirus”, she said.
Director General of Cross River Primary Healthcare Agency, Dr Janet Ekpenyong, said that all health facilities have been strengthened and well equipped to enhance the prevention of any disease outbreak in the state.
In a related development, Delta State Government has set up a response team in the wake of the reported case of coronavius in the country.
The State Commissioner for Health, Dr Mordi Ononye, made the disclosure at a media briefing in Asaba.
According to him, the team is headed by Dr Belu Abaye, the Head of the Rapid Response Team of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
He said that following the reported case of the virus in Lagos, Delta has been put on red alert to forestall the virus from spreading to the state.
Ononye said a response team had been constituted “to handle any case of the virus in the event of any eventuality.”