Bauchi State Primary HealthCare Development Agency (PHCDA) says the state government spends N1,500 per single meal for COVID-19 patients on admission in the state.
Dr Rilwanu Mohammed, Executive Chairman of the agency, disclosed this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Bauchi on Sunday.
Mohammed, who is also the Chairman, contact tracing Committee on COVID-19 in the state, said the state governor, Bala Mohammad gave the directives in order to ensure that all the COVID-19 patients in the state were well fed.
He said the idea was to make sure that they feel more at home and avoid a replica protest or revolt by COVID-19 patients in some other states.
“It was the state government that ordered us that we should put N1,500 per single meal in a day.
“That is, N1,500 meal during breakfast, the same amount for lunch as well as dinner because he doesn’t want anybody in isolation to suffer or complain so that we won’t have any riot like in some other states.
“This brings the total amount of money on meal per day to N4,500 on a single patient,” Mohammed said.
Recounting phone conversations with some members of the public, the PHCDA boss said, having heard about the sumptuous treatment received by COVID-19 patients, some people were calling to be taken to an isolation centre even though they were hale and hearty.
“Recently, three people called me and they were asking that they wanted to be admitted in the isolation centre.
“One of them was from Giade Local Government Area of the state and because we recently discharged a lot of people from that area, obviously they had given them information on how they were taken care of.
“All these people were pleading with me to come and pick them up and take them to an isolation centre, they said they wanted to enjoy the chicken, eggs, fried potatoes and all the goodies our patients are having while in isolation,” he said.
Mohammed further urged the people of the state to always adhere to all the preventive measures as advised by the government and health experts in order to contain the spread of the virus.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the state, as at Saturday, May 24, had recorded 232 confirmed cases of COVID-19; 164 had been discharged so far, five deaths, with 63 active cases.
