The Cross River State Government said it will quarantine officials of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 for 14 days and be tested to ascertain their coronavirus status.
The Federal Government had on Wednesday said that the NCDC and PTF will visit Cross River and Kogi States to provide support to their response and to ensure testing and ascertain if the states are indeed COVID-19 free
But the Cross River State Commissioner of Health and Chairman COVID-19 Response Task Force Dr Betta Edu told DAILY POST on Wednesday night that any official from NCDC/PTF visited the state must undergo quarantine for 14 days and be tested for COVID-19 to ascertain status.
Speaking with our correspondent, Dr Edu said “We are not aware of their coming but we will welcome them and they will go through our procedures of quarantine for 14 days, tested to ascertain their COVID-19 negative status.
“We are happy to receive them, but they will be subjected to our procedure of quarantine for 14 days and be tested to ascertain their COVID-19 negative. You know they are coming in from COVID-19 highly infested areas and we want to avoid people taking the virus to our state, our state is COVID-19 free
“We are not afraid of their coming but we have to ascertain their COVID-19 free status. It is very important. As they are coming, we have a thousand and one questions to ask them including why the state was not assisted.
“We will take them to our borders and where we have several hundreds of refugees camped in our state and they will appreciate what we have been telling them.
“Let they come down to see things by themselves, hence we are not afraid of their coming to the State, in fact, we are happy to receive them. NCDC and PTF don’t seem to believe us but their coming will afford them the opportunity to see things for themselves
“As they are coming, we shall take them around including our borders, let them see what we have been shouting, but nothing seems to have happened and the visit will enable them see that we deserve assistance because they thought that we are not speaking the truth,” Dr Edu stated.