By Saheed Ibrahim

Ondo state government, yesterday distributed Personal Protective Equipment, PPEs to health facilities in the state.
The distribution exercise, which took place at Central Medical Store, Akure, witnessed representatives from each health facility in the state, Directors in the Ministry of Health and other stakeholders in the health sector.
The medical equipment, distributed were face shields, hand washing pails and bowls, goggle, heavy duty apron, heavy duty gloves, hand sanitisers, isolation gown and medical scrubs. Others were N-95 respirator, cotton wool (500g), Biohazard, Infrared thermometer, pulse oxymetre, face masks, anti-bacterial and cosmetic soaps, body cream, detergents, among others.
While distributing the items, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Health, Dr Jibayo Adeyeye noted that the distribution of medical equipment to health facilities in the state had been a continuous exercise, adding that state government had never for once left the health workers unprotected.
He stated that “The essence of the gathering here today is to distribute personal health equipment to our various hospitals in Ondo state; the teaching hospital, the general hospitals and the primary health care centres
“We are giving out many personal protective equipment today to dispel the rumour in the media that medical workers are in short supply of personal protective equipment.
“We have done this severally, this is just one of the episodes that we are distributing equipment but we decided to make today’s own public. We have done it severally and we have list of each item we have given out in the past”.
Adeye noted that the items would be distributed to each of the health facilities according to its capacity and patronage.
Speaking on the recent increase in the number of coronavirus cases detected in the state, The Special Adviser said that the increase was due to the intensified effort of the state to test more people and identify those that are infected.
“We do not see it as a surge; we rather see it as a product of the hardwork of our surveillance team. It means they are working very hard and states that are not having this kind of figures simply means they are probably not doing enough testing.
“Our health workers and our surveillance team are doing so much to ensure that they quickly identify those that are positive amongst us so that they can isolate them.
He however revealed that Ondo state government is building more isolation centres in different parts of the state to handle any eventuality.
“We are building more isolation centres. We are building one in Ondo. We are building another Isolation centre in Odigbo and we are also trying to carve out an isolation centre with about 30 to 40 beds inside the premises of the University of Medical Science Teaching Hospital in Ondo and I believe with all these isolation centres, we should be more than prepared to tackle any eventuality.
“Moreso, the COVID-19 committee has decided that every secondary health facility in Ondo state must have some isolation facility. So, it will not be limited only to Akure or the isolation centres we are providing. Every hospital will have to have an isolation centre”, he disclosed.
Commenting on the directive of the Federal Government to allow interstate travelling, Dr Jibayo Adeyeye said that people would not remain in lockdown forever, shutting down their entire lives, saying, “We have to live with it and get our people to understand what they need to do to ensure they do not contract or spread the disease”.
He called on various media agencies to support the government on the sensitization of the people also advised the public to keep to all the recommendations of health workers in order to flatten the curve of the pandemic.