‘N4,500 spent daily on each Bauchi COVID-19 patient’

Every coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patient in Bauchi State takes a meal worth N1,500 three times daily totalling N4,500. 

The head of the committee on contact tracing and Chairman, Primary Health Care Development Agency (PHCDA) in the state, Dr. Rilwanu Mohammed, revealed this over the weekend.

Rilwanu said Governor Bala Mohammed gave the directive to ensure that all the COVID-19 patients in the state be well fed.

The idea was to make sure that the patients on admission feel more at home and avoid a protest or revolt like it happened in some states, he added.

“It was the state governor that ordered us to put N1,500 per meal. That is, N1,500 meal at breakfast, the same amount for lunch and dinner, because he doesn’t want anybody in isolation to suffer or complain, so that we won’t have any riot like in some states. This brings the total amount of money on meal per day to N4,500 for a patient,” said the chairman.

He said having heard about the sumptuous treatment received by COVID-19 patients, some people were calling to be taken to an isolation centre even as they were hale and hearty.

“Recently, three people called me and were asking to be admitted in isolation. One of them was from Giade Council, 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.

He urged the people of the state to always adhere to the preventive measures as advised by the government and health experts, to contain the virus.

Bauchi has 232 confirmed cases of COVID-19; 164 had been discharged, five died, while 63 remain active at press time.