The Oyo State Governor, Engineer Seyi Makinde has confirmed
that the State’s data for the distribution of palliatives was now ready and
that it had been able to identify the poorest of the poor, who will benefit
from the palliatives.
Speaking with newsmen recently, he said “on the issue of
palliative, we are still working on it. I have mentioned earlier that a lot of
pressure is being mounted on the government to provide a palliative for the
people but the data that we met showed that the palliative will go to wrong
hands if we have used the data.
“Now, we have our own data and we are sure about it because
we have done two levels of verification and validation. We are sure that we
have been able to identify the poorest of the poor in our environment here.
With the data, we will engage in the distribution of palliatives for our people
hopefully before the end of next week. The good news also is, some of the
states that have gone through this palliative distribution have had challenges.
We have looked at those challenges and have designed measures around it such
that it will not happen in Oyo State.”
Governor Makinde, who also noted that the ongoing massive
Drive-Through/Walk-Through Testing at the Lekan Salami Stadium, Adamasingba,
Ibadan, was already yielding results, added that the test would enable the
state get hold of scientific base to understand the behaviour of the virus in
Oyo State.
He said that with four new cases confirmed from the tests,
the State would be in a position to understand the pattern of the virus and
come up with matching measures to contain it.
He said that the state was already concerned about food
security post-COVID-19, adding that the government will embark on enlightenment
for farmers on how to stay safe from Coronavirus while engaging in farming.
According to him, Oyo State was working with the
International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the Institute of
Agriculture Research and Training (IAR&T) to ensure a seamless planting
season.
The governor said: “Yesterday (Thursday), the COVID-19
confirmation tests for two suspected cases came back positive. One of the two
cases lives in Yemetu. I understand that the individual works at the University
College Hospital, Ibadan, while the other is a returnee from the United States.
During the COVID-19 Task Force meeting on Friday, we also received message that
two more persons have tested positive.
“So we have four new cases through the
Drive-Through/Walk-Through Test being conducted at Adamasingba. It has been our
aspiration to test a lot more people. So, as we do this mass testing, we can
see the pattern of the virus within our environment. And from those tests and
results, we can confidently tell of how the virus is behaving within our
environment, and we can have appropriate measures designed to deal with the
situation.”
The governor said the State was well-prepared in terms of
isolation centres and facilities, stating that apart from the 100-bed
Infectious Disease Centre at Olodo, Ibadan, which is ready to receive cases,
the State had been upgrading the isolation at the LAUTECH Teaching Hospital,
Ogbomoso, while another facility in Saki is being upgraded to 100-bed ICU.
He added that the General Hospital at Igbo-Ora is also being
evaluated for a section of it to be used as an isolation centre.
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