By Sunday John
Lafia – The Nasarawa State Government says it has set up counselling teams at the various quarantine centres in the state.
Mrs Margret Illayo, Senior Special Adviser (SSA) to Gov. Abdullahi Sule on Health, made the disclosure on Sunday in Lafia while inspecting the quarantine centre at Shaibu community in Lafia.
According to her, the governor has made her the leader of the counselling teams in the state with a view to ensuring better welfare of the people at the centres.
The SSA said that the counselling teams would be assessing all the quarantined persons one after the other so as to address their emotional and psychological challenges.
“Some of them might be traumatised as a result of being confined in one place for some time.
“Most of them were returnees from the high risk states that were intercepted because of the government directives to further contain the spread of COVID-19.
“They need counselling to know that the government loves them, that is why they were quarantined to ensure that they are free of the virus before they are allowed to go.
“They left wherever they were coming from and wanted to go to their respective communities to meet their loved ones contrary to the government order, but ended up here due to the serious measures put in place by the government,” she said.
Illayo said that samples from most of them had already been taken to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) for testing, and their results were being awaited.
She said that anyone found negative would be allowed to go, but anyone who tested positive would be taken into isolation, for treatment.
The SSA appealed to people in the various quarantine centres to remain calm, as everything possible was being done to ensure they were properly taken care of while there.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the state government has intercepted and quarantined over 200 people returning from states with high risk of coronavirus.
No fewer than 15 of them have so far tested positive for COVID-19.
(NAN).
