The head of the committee on contact tracing and Chairman, Primary Health Care Development Agency (PHCDA) in the state, Dr. Rilwanu Mohammed, revealed over the weekend, that each COVID-19 patient cost N4,500 because they take a meal worth N1,500 three times daily totaling N4,500.
Rilwanu said Governor Bala Mohammed gave the directive to ensure that all the COVID-19 patients in the state are well fed and ensure that they feel at home.
“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 also said because of the lavish treatment of COVID-19 patients at the isolation center, some people called to be taken to the centre even though they were healthy
“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 continued to encourage the people of the state to practice preventive measures as advised by the government and health experts, to contain the spread of the virus.
Bauchi has 232 confirmed cases of COVID-19; 164 had been discharged, five died, while 63 remain active currently.