Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello has announced full insurance for health workers involved in the fight against coronavirus spread in the state.
The state government also said it had increased their hazard allowance from N30, 000 to N50,000 to encourage them to put in their best.
The governor made the announcement on Thursday night in Lokoja when officials of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) led by Dr Noah Andrew visited him.
He said the moves were aimed at boosting the health workers’ confidence.
Bello told the NCDC delegation that the state Ministry of Health had deployed health workers in the 239 wards making up the state, as well as two officials who would sensitise residents to the dangers of the virus in each of the wards.
He said, “We have set up three modern isolation/containment centres in the state with 130 bed spaces.
“It is our prayer and our determination that these isolation centres will remain vacant until the pandemic is over.
“We have provided emergency and toll-free numbers for the general public to call in and report suspected cases of Covid-19. We have also fielded many of such calls. All of them turned out to be false alarms upon investigation and did not meet the criteria from the NCDC for cases which should be sampled for testing.
“We cannot manufacture cases in order to be counted among the states which have recorded same.”
“As governor I hear there are ‘benefits’ for having COVID-19 cases in your state. But I am not interested.”
The governor said the state had resolved to comply with the NCDC’s directive by keeping government officials in isolation for 14 days and take their samples to ensure they are COVID-19 free.
Andrew said two members of the team would be left behind to help the state and support the state government’s efforts to stop the spread of coronavirus to Kogi.
He urged residents to observe social distancing and use face mask at all times as part of the measures to fight the killer disease.
