COVID-19: FG to reach 11 million Nigerians with palliatives

… Plans to increase capacity for testing weekly

Federal government has said it will be reaching more than 11 million Nigerians with palliatives to cushion the harsh effects of the measures set to fight back outbreak of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic.

Also, the government has said it will continue to increase capacity to test for cases of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) on weekly basis.

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouk, while reacting to questions on Tuesday at the daily media briefing by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja, also disclosed that internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Northeast part of the country already received two months rations of relief materials.

She said the government already had a social-register with details of those considered as the vulnerable in society in 35 states of the federation, adding that these people belong to around 2.6 million households across the country.

Also speaking, the Director-General of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chike Ihekweazu, said Nigeria would continue to develop capacity to test for COVID-19, said while it now has the capacity to test up to 1,000 this week, it hopes to be able to test as many as 1,500 next week.