Badaru urges fervent prayers against spread of coronavirus

Gov. Muhammad Badaru of Jigawa, on Thursday urged residents to pray fervently against the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) to the state.

Badaru made the call after inspecting the state’s Isolation Centre in Dutse.

He also urged residents to comply with experts’ and government’s directives on what they should do in order not to contract the disease.

The governor said that prayers and compliance with experts’ directives would go a long way toward preventing the spread of the virus to the state.

“Even though Jigawa has zero status of the virus, there is the need for all of us to pray to Allah to prevent the outbreak of the disease in the state.

“For this, we call on everyone to fervently pray for the virus not to get to the state,” the governor said.

According to him, the state government is doing its best to prevent an outbreak in the state by taking precautionary measures.

Badaru said that some of the measures were the provision of a well-equipped 20-bed-capacity isolation centre with trained manpower and the setting up of a task force on COVID-19.

Another measure, he said, was the inauguration of local implementation committees in the 27 local government areas of the state to implement the decisions of the task force at the grassroots.

“Also, disinfecting contact areas and scaling up public awareness, limiting public gatherings, border closure, and suspension of weekly markets are parts of the measures.

“These measures were taken in order to protect the public and to prevent the spread of the disease,” he said.

The governor further urged residents to exercise patience, assuring them that all the measures would be lifted once the situation improved.

“The measures were not taken to inconvenience people but to protect (them).

“So, we urge you to exercise more patience, as all these measure are temporary and will be lifted as soon as the situation improves,” the governor said.

According to him, in case of the outbreak of the virus in the state, the government will provide more isolation centres, as well as convert some of its properties to isolation centres.

He said the centres (10-bed-capacity), could be sited in Birnin Kudu Local Government Area and at the 20-bed-capacity Rasheed Shekoni Specialist Hospital in Dutse.

“And if we become overwhelmed with the situation, we will convert Three Star Hotel in Dutse and the NYSC Camp to isolation centres (120-bed-capacity each),” he said.

Our correspondent reports that the governor later inspected some of the proposed isolation centres.