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Kwara State Governor, AbdulRaman AbdulRazaq has banned all gatherings of persons more than 25 in the state.
AbdulRazaq added that all civil servants in the state are to work from home from Monday.
“I have since approved funding for the construction of an isolation centre at the onset of our administration. Now, the number of cases in Nigeria is increasing, there are a total of 27 confirmed cases.
“Our administration has taken the following difficult but important decisions to protect Kwarans; closure of all public and private nurseries, primary, secondary and state-owned tertiary institutions, aside from Ministry of health and essential workers, all civil servants are to work from home and all gatherings of more than 25 people are hereby discouraged until further notice.
“We need to encourage all Kwarans to get involved in this fight against COVID-19. We believe we will achieve desired results only if and when our people are properly sensitised on how to protect our communities from the virus.
“We are determined to continue to make the necessary investments in healthcare to safeguard the lives of our people. A 20-bed high-quality isolation centre has been completed and equipped at Sobi Specialist Hospital and plans are underway to build additional and well-equipped 12-bed intensive care unit at the General Hospital, Ilorin.
“We have put in place a ‘COVID-19 Technical Committee’ comprising healthcare professionals and officials whose primary responsibility is to assist our administration in combating COVID-19 in Kwara State. This committee is headed by the Deputy Governor.
“In addition to the above measures, including the emergency telephone lines already given by the Ministry of Health, you will be receiving regular briefings and bulletins from us on the development.
“Finally, l wish to reassure all Kwarans of the determination of our administration to prevent, contain, and limit the impact of the pandemic on our people.”