Gov. Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State on Friday lauded President Muhammadu Buhari’s commitment to tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tambuwal, who spoke at the inauguration of Sokoto State COVID-19 Volunteers, said that the pandemic was being well addressed by the president and the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.
“I personally want to appreciate the president and the Task Force on COVID-19 for the commitment shown to address the pandemic.
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“This is a trying time for all of us, we need to work together as one entity to enable collective success in seeing to the end of the pandemic in various states, the country and the world at large.
“In Sokoto State, we started our experience of COVID-19 directly from community transmission, as our first positive case has no travel history or contact with an infected person.
“As such, the state needs a lot of community engagement, enlightenment and strict measures to address the spread of COVID-19,” he said.
The governor added that the state was working toward securing 560-bed spaces for isolation of patients in order to address any shortage of beds for patients.
“We have 89 confirmed cases in the state. For isolation, we have enough facilities and we are moving toward a 560-bed capacity.
“Moreover, we are working toward increasing daily testing capacity to accommodate the demands of the state and those of Kebbi and Zamfara, ” he said.
Tambuwal praised the state’ task force on COVID-19 for commitment to ensuring more measures would be taken to fight the pandemic.
He also commended the volunteers for courage and support for the government.
“Your courage is apt, as some are running from such a task not only in Nigeria but in other countries, for the fear of getting infected.
“I want to assure you that the state government will continue to ensure more support toward all your demands to enable a collective success,” he said.
The governor also thanked donor -agencies, groups and individuals for supporting the state with money and materials to address the pandemic.
Dr Ali Inname, Chairman of the state Tasks Force on COVID-19 and the state Commissioner for Health, said that the state was targeting 10,000 volunteers.
“This includes medical doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians and environmental specialists to cover the gaps.
“Currently, we have only two COVID-19 sample collection centres – at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital and the Specialist Hospital, Sokoto.
“Our target is to have at least 10 centres, considering the number of people coming for COVID-19 test across the state,” he said.