Over 200,000 households have benefitted from palliative distributed since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Ondo state. The state governor, Rotimi Akeredolu said aside from this, his administration has also reached out to those in the hospitals; the sick, pregnant, and women and nursing mothers, to minimize the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the people.
He said this at the flag-off ceremony of CA-COVID 19 Palliative items distribution in Akure, the state capital. Akeredolu lamented that the outbreak of the disease has adversely affected both the lives and means of livelihood of our people.
According to him, “To us, it can be likened to a state of warfare. We are fighting an invisible enemy.
“Many are carrying the “bullet wound” without knowing and many are already sent to early graves and many more might still go unless we brace up and do what is right as individuals and communities.”
Akeredolu who said that his administration is doing its best possible within the available resources to ameliorate the effects of this pandemic on the people maintained that part of his mitigation strategies is the provision of food items as palliatives to the people. He added that his government had gone the extra mile to make the provision of the food items a reality.
The governor said: “We started by setting up a palliative committee to gather and distribute food items to the people through the Local Government Distribution Committees.
“We ensured that the committees are truly representative in composition in terms of geographical, gender, professional and religious spread.” “We have been forced by COVID-19 outbreak to review downward our budget just like every other State and the Federal Government, but nevertheless God Almighty has made it possible for us to continue to pay salaries and the implementation of our various shining across the State.
According to him the commodities coalition donated to the State will be able to take care of at least 50,000 households across the nook and cranny of the State.
He noted that the delay in the flag-off ceremony was occasioned by the need for the exercise to be carried out in all the states of the Federation at about the same time. The governor, however, assured that he will ensure a fair and equitable distribution of the items provided.
The Chairman of COVID -19 Palliative Committee in the state, Mr. Akin Olotu, disclosed that hundreds of household have benefitted from the palliative put in place by the state government. He said “In the first phase we are able to reach out through local government distribution committees to about 80,000 households.
“We visited hospitals and maternity homes and Federal Medical Center, reaching out to the sick with food items, drinks with the intention to boost their protein intake. “We have been given the mandate to reach out to 40,000 households across the state as regards CA-COVID 19 Palliative items distribution.
”We want to assure you that we shall do accordingly and even surpass the expectations in delivery and choice of beneficiaries” Vanguard News
Dayo Johnson,
Vanguard News