From Kolade Adeyemi, Jos
The Plateau State governor, Simon Bako Lalong, on Saturday announced that the state government has so far committed over N366.5 million to the fight against Covid-19.
Lalong revealed this at the COVID-19 engagements with local government chairmen and traditional rulers at the Government House, Jos.
In addition, he said, “We launched the Plateau State Covid-19 Endowment Fund, which saw good-spirited individuals and corporate organisations making donations.”
He, however, expressed gratitude to those kind-hearted people who contributed about N123. 3 million, as well as other food and medical items valued at about N155m.
Lalong hinted that the World Health Organisation also recently donated N100m to the state government, which has greatly helped the state to treat those infected by the virus.
“Such donations also enhanced our capacity to distribute palliatives to the weak and vulnerable to cushion the impact of the pandemic, which were handled in the most transparent manner under the supervision of His Excellency, the Deputy Governor, Prof. Sonni Tyoden.
Additionally, we received donations from the Private Sector Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) comprising maize flour, pasta, noodles, sugar, salt and semolina worth about N850 million for distribution to 39,993 households across the 17 local governments.
The governor further disclosed that the state government is still expecting rice consignment from the CACOVID donation, which will be distributed to the beneficiaries.
He said, “My engagements with the federal government as member of the Nigerian Governors Forum and Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum facilitated the establishment of three testing centres in Plateau State. In addition, we have ordered for Mobile Testing Vans, which have capacity to diagnose over 30 health conditions including COVID-19, HIV, Ebola, Hepatitis among others.
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