Governor Ifeanyi Okowa has said his administration will continue to partner the private sector in mitigating the debilitating effects of COVID-19 on the less-privileged in the state.
Okowa stated this on Wednesday in Asaba while flagging off the National Food Distribution Programme of the Private Sector Coalition Against COVID-19 (CA-COVID).
He commended CA-COVID for pulling resources together to make the donation aimed at ameliorating the plight of the downtrodden in the society.
The Governor noted that the donation was apt and timely as the coronavirus pandemic had negatively affected small and medium scale businesses, and remarked that the kind gesture from the private sector would go a long way in addressing the problem of hunger among the economically weak in the state.
Okowa said many families were struggling to put food on their tables, promising that his administration would continue to take steps that would alleviate the plights of residents of the state.
He urged the committee set up to distribute the food items at the local government levels to be thorough and warned that the distribution of the food items should not be politicized.
The Governor reminded the people that COVID-19 was not a death sentence, adding that those with the virus-related symptoms should quickly go for testing to ascertain their status.
Okowa disclosed that more isolation and treatment centres had been established in all parts of the state.
Earlier, the representative of CA-COVID in the state, Mr Lucky Ighade, said the donation was to assist states and the federal government in handling the challenges of hunger and starvation among poor families across the country.
Ighade, who disclosed that CA-COVID had donated medical facilities and food items to the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, harped on the need for Nigerians to stick to all NCDC-prescribed protocols in order to flatten the curve of the infection.
He commended Governor Okowa for the steps his administration had taken to curtail the spread of the virus in the state,
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