By Judex Okoro, Daily Sun
The Cross River State Government said it would assist Bauchi State with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and face masks to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Giving the assurance in Calabar on Friday while reacting to insinuations by Governor Bala Mohammed that the current status of Cross River with regard to COVID-19 is doubtful, the Commissioner for Health and Chairman of Cross Task Force on COVID-19, Dr. Betta Edu said given the rising number of cases in Bauchi, it’s natural that the the Government there would be under pressure in trying times like this.
Beta said: “We stand with them at this point. We are ready to support them if they give us the privilege. We shall support them with face masks and Personal Protective Equipment to get out of this trouble.
“How could we have sponsored 15 people to travel to Bauchi? We understand the Governro’s problems. When a leader finds it difficult to cope with a population which suddenly have high number of COVID-19 cases it can be traumatising.
“But we sympathise with him. We understand the pressure he must be going through in this trying times,” she stated.
She explained that Cross River had remained COVID-19 free because the State began the fight against spread of the pandemic quite early than others, stressing that all the neighbouring States of Ebonyi, Akwa Ibom, Benue and the republic of Cameroon were shutdown earlier than when other states began the fight against spread of the virus.
“We have done massive screening in recent time for over 530 persons. We have a monitoring team across the State and on border communities and we pay money to keep them. Masks is compulsory and we are not repenting on it. So what have we done wrong that everybody wants us to record an index case.”
Recall that the Bauchi State Governor, Alhaji Bala Mohammed, had during a media briefing a few days ago lampooned the administration of Governor Ben Ayade for making false claims that Cross River State is COVID-19 free.