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Sylvanus Viashima, Jalingo
As the global devastation caused by the novel COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread to more states in northern Nigeria, Access Bank Plc has pledged to provide a one hundred bed capacity isolation centre to the Taraba State government.
Taraba Commissioner for Health Dr Innocent Vakkai made this known in Jalingo, the state capital, while briefing reporters on the activities of the state’s technical committee on COVID-19.
Vakkai, who disclosed that the centre is to be sited at the NYSC orientation camp at Sibre, also announced the donation of hand sanitisers worth over N2 million to the state government by the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN).
Vakkai said that the government was worried that despite the total lockdown of the state borders, there is still a constant influx of persons from other parts of the country into the state, a situation he blamed on the “laxity of security agencies manning the borders.”
Taraba State chairman of PSN Samaila Boyi, who made the presentation of hand sanitisers to the state’s technical committee on COVID-19, in Jalingo, said that the high-quality sanitisers were produced and packaged in the state to mitigate the spread of fake sanitisers, urging the people to always use accredited pharmacies to source for their sanitisers.
Boyi said that the gesture was a call to duty that had to be done against all odds.
“Today, we are donating hand sanitisers worth over two million naira to the state government. This is a duty call for us. It is paramount for us to respond to the challenge of the COVID-19 global pandemic.
“We know that the government cannot do it all. That is why we have decided to take up this challenge to continue sensitisation and precautionary measures in the hope that no case comes over. Let me use this opportunity to urge the people that they should not relax just because we have not recorded any case yet. It is better to be active and take to the orders of government. Let me also join others to urge Nigerians to avoid taking drugs indiscriminately,” Boyi said.
