Cross River state has been rated topmost on prevention and even level of preparedness for the Corona Virus outbreak. The state has been widely praised by both FG and health expert who have done independent appraisals of the COVID-19 response in the state. However this has not gone down well with some clout seeking individuals and even highly respected groups as the believe it is too good to be true, the state must be hiding something.
Rather than work with the state Government to respond to the pandemic, they have gone to work, feeding the public with information that are totally false, misleading but would soothe their wicked imaginations and give them some closure.
They wish to cast doubt on the minds of people and put people into perpetual fear leading to reduction in persons who might want to report at health facilities when sick and seek help for other health challenges. This scare has lead to increase in other disease like hypertension etc and even death from other illnesses due to scare and neglect of patients as fear has been created in the minds of even health workers. State will act decisively with such persons or group henceforth!
Amidst the numerous challenges Cross River State has faced so far as regards the outbreak of the global COVID19 with no single support from the Federal Government the State remains the only one yet to record any confirmed case in Nigeria, the State's Commissioner for Health Dr Betta Edu has expressed her shock and dissatisfaction as to why individuals include highly respected bodies will indulge in falsehood, rumors and misrepresentation of information just to gather clout or impress the public and tell them what is sweet to the ears!
In her words; " why is evil sweet to some people’s ears, why does negative falsehood spread so fast. Why does lies make bigger headlines, It's so sad to know that our Country is refusing to support a State that has no Corona Virus case to keep it that way but will rather prefer to support you to treat 10000 cases. As a Country, we've so magnified/glorified COVID-19 that our Health Workers out of fear have allowed patients with other ailment to die. People no longer come to hospitals out of fear that the will be tagged Corona virus positive. Health workers have abandoned hospitals in some states out of fear of death as adequate tools have not been provided.
We wake up everyday with a high expectations from NCDC as to the figures or number of cases they'll announce to us and when they do, we celebrate and keep expecting more. How many people are we going to lose as a result of other ailments before we will stop glorifying/hyping COVID-19"? How many people will this country lose to negligence of the health workers who we have been put in perpetual fear with no proper tools to respond; before we know it’s time to change strategy?” Can Corona virus ever kill 3000 daily as maternal mortality does? How about the over 1000 persons dying of malaria daily in this country or the over 900 dying of malnutrition daily? Are these lives not important too? High blood pressure and stroke has become the order of the day, stress, psychological trauma, domestic violence etc is swallowing more lives, isn’t it time to change strategy and demystify the whole Corona virus saga?”
The Honorable Commissioner expressed worry over the increasing number of deaths occasioned by other diseases such as Malaria, High Blood Pressure, Cancer, Diabetes, Hypertension amongst others which is killing Nigerians in thousands yet no one is actively responding to those. Health workers across the country are not supported with PPEs and are threatening strikes, Federal teaching hospitals are not actively supported across the country, neither are state government supported to respond to the pandemic except for very few selected states ( may be two or three so far that has received tangible support)
She advocated for more stringent measures to be put in place in tackling all diseases and improving the health sector or the health sector will miss this big window of opportunity to get fixed but will rather deteriorate as it is presently the case in Nigeria. States have come to their wit end the are financially exhausted, some can’t even pay salaries again, Federal Government must come to the rescue immediately.
Cross River State as a result of so many pleas for support from the Federal Government which has fallen on deaf ears has no option but to surrender its fate into the hands of the Federal Government as well as the NCDC stating that the State have done its best in putting into practice all the necessary preventive measures early which has yielded results, but it's very obvious that prevention isn't what is needed and will never attract any support as it has become a thing of shame rather than pride to the Nation for a State not to have a case and as such, Cross River state may soon decide to be politically correct if that's what will make FG support the State.
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