by By Elijah Ugani – Calabar
The Cross River State Commissioner for Health Dr. Betta Edu has stated that it is not a must that every state in Nigeria must have covid-19.
Edu stated this in a press briefing today in Calabar the Cross River State Capital while reacting to the statement credited to the Nigerian Center for Disease Control NCDC, which allegedly accused the state of not making available enough samples for test.
Her words “It is not compulsory that every state in Nigeria must must have Covid-19, the pressure from all parties is becoming too necessary. Only 50 sample collection kits was sent from the federal government for a population of 4.5million. How many tests do you expect Betta Edu and CRS to conduct per week?.
“How do we embark on community sample collection, for us as a state, we decided that only people with who meet the criteria sent from NCDC that we will collect their sample. We applied for federal support in the things we are doing right, to produce more face masks, supply rice seedlings to our famers to prevent post Covid-19 hunger”
The Commissioner held that “we began sensitization when there was no case of corona virus, then it was Lassa fever in January, it sounded as if there was no case in Africa.
“Cross River State remain the very first state to screen people who came in through our borders, from China and Asia and. quarantined them for two weeks. We are the first state to shut our international and state borders. The no mask no movement that was placed by the President Muhammadu Buhari this week was first declared and enforced by Sen. Prof. Ben Ayade”
Continuing, Edu stated that “just last week, the governor closed borders completely, but the President and the Inspector General of Police called and requested that essential commodities be allowed. The governor also provide 50 vehicles to aid surveillance and to ensure compliance with the directives issued by the governor. It is amazing that some persons are insisting that CRS must have the virus”
The Health Commissioner lamented that neither the federal government or NCDC has been able to commend CRS or declare the state a model in the fight against Covid-19 despite huge efforts put in to contain it and as well as planned for post Covid-19 era.
“The governor is leading in industrialization, today the garment factory is producing face mask to serve the entire country, as we produce, we increase our IGR. What we got from FAAC was below a billion, which not enough to pay salaries, which is simply because oil price has fallen all over the world. During this Covid-19, we have to plan for the post Covid-19 era. To achieve this, for me we don’t need a ventilator because there is no case here. What we need here is for the federal government to set up a vaccine manufacturing factory in CRS as a means of sustaining the economy even after the covid-19, that will give my people jobs and produce vaccines for Nigerians and Africa”
Edu used the opportunity to called on the federal government to isolate states that have done well and support them in areas of their priorities. And held that “the first thing we need as a state is to keep our borders shut, federal government should pay the officers at our borders as we are spending so much on traditional rulers and political appointees manning our borders, federal government should set up a testing center in the state, increase sample test kits and reduce pressure on us, support the production of face masks, Nigeria should use CRS as a model for Covid-19”
Edu stressed that “if we have people coming from anywhere into the state, whether NCDC, we will quarantine them for fourteen days before we allow them do any training. The federal ministry of health and NCDC should ensure that CRS remains Covid-19 free”
