Eneji Simon Ushie|23 April 2020
It is a common misconception that government policies are only centred in the urban areas where the rich and elites resides, but today the narrative is changing as the Cross River State government has engaged the services of numerous health workers and volunteers to front line their affairs on the Covid19 sensitization and awareness campaign.
The Director General, Cross River State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Janet Ekpenyong, disclosed that staff of the agency have been fragmented into working groups made up of an Announcer, an Interpreter, a Social mobilizer, and a Recorder with 2 kilometers per settlement being allocated to them for comprehensive awareness creation on Covid-19 and other killer diseases.
Dr Ekpenyong further disclosed that in line with His Excellency, Senator Professor Ben Ayade's commitment to keep the state free from Covid-19 by locking the state's borders, the management and staff of the Cross River State Primary Healthcare Development Agencies have resulted into formation of groups targeting various rural communities for easier information dissemination.
"Today in Nigeria, we have over 500 cases and 22 deaths, cases have been recorded in all of our neighboring states and even Cameron, we are proud of our proactive Governor, Senator Professor Ben Ayade who made a deliberate effort in shutting down all of our state's borders from outsiders and by that, we in the Primary Healthcare Development Agency have chosen to segment ourselves by the formation of a working taskforce to go into communities to create better awareness on ways of managing the Covid19 pandemic.
We have set up an in-house taskforce, comprising of an announcer, an interpreter, a social mobilization officer, a decoder and a supervisor to cover an area of 2 kilometers in all communities in the state.
Here in the metropolis, our staff are visible everywhere from Spar to other malls and markets, we have moved from Jebbs to Ekpo Abasi, down to Anantiga all in Calabar South, in other LGAs, covering all the border communities including Boje and Uruan all in Boki,
we have gotten reports from Itigidi and Ababona in Abi, and same in all 196 political wards in the state.
She however sued for cooperation from citizens to adapt all precautionary measures in curbing the spread of the virus while also speaking on government's renewed commitment to ensure the safety of all dwellers in the state through the provision of various Personal Protective Equipment and measures to aid families now and in the post-Covid-19 era.
