Engineer Seyi Makinde’s Government in Oyo State on Tuesday held a sensitization program on the prevention of the spread of COVID-19 among practicing media practitioners and stakeholders at the Kakanfo Inn and Conference Centre, Ibadan, the capital city of the state.
The sensitization program which witnessed high level participation from Journalists and other stakeholders helped to throw more light on current developments on the spread of COVID-19 and to demystify the misconceptions of the epidemic among the people of Oyo State.
Speaking at the event, the Honorable Commissioner for Health, Dr Bashir Bello said “the State is proactive and ready to combat any resurgence of the epidemic as the government has set up 27 testing centres across the 33 local governments in the state to combat the epidemic”.
He went further to urge the people of the state to get tested in the various centres as the state government is magnanimous enough to bear the cost of the test.
He said residents of the state are very lucky among the various states in the country as the test is conducted freely in the state courtesy of the state government.
The commissioner debunked the rumour that the pandemic has been totally defeated while he warned residents not to stigmatize anyone who has contacted the disease.
In the event of the EndSARS protest, “He said the State Government is aware of the flouting of the order of the government on social distancing among the protesters, saying the government is careful in taking decisive actions so as not to be seen as being antagonistic to the demands of the youths. He urged the youths to take advantage of the free testing available in the state to know their statuses.
The commissioner said since the resumption of schools in the state, there has been no recorded cases of coronavirus as safety measures have been put in place by the Ministry of Education to observe social distancing in schools while proper monitoring was put in place by the government to check any possible violators.
Delivering a lecture, Dr Pelumi Adebiyi an Epidemiology expert urged the participants not to hide the COVID-19 status of their children as they are more vulnerable to it. He said people are aversive to COVID-19 test from the data collected in Oyo State while warning that the risk of the epidemic increases in close-contact places.
He urged Stakeholders to intensify their efforts in ensuring that media advocacy on COVID-19 and other related issues are sustained.
In a separate remark, Mrs Aminat Yahaya, a UNICEF representative said the disease is not a respecter of race and religion as blacks are not immune from contacting COVID-19. She said misuse of drugs and herbs to cure the diseases can have adverse effects.
She emphasized that proper washing of hands and the correct use of nose masks can help to minimize the spread while urging school proprietors to ensure enough ventilation in classrooms to further halt the spread.
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