Covid-19: About 44,000 households to benefit from Cross River free food buffers

Government of Cross River State has disclosed that 44,000 very poor households have been earmarked to benefit from its free food programme to cushion the effects of the lockdown and sit-at-home directives.

Chairman of the Cross River State Covid-19 Rescue Team, Dr Betta Edu who is the commissioner for health in the state revealed this in a media briefing on Friday.

She said the the committee would rely on the World Bank social welfare registers which show that there are 44,000 vulnerable families in the state.

According to her, government has already devised ways to reach out to the affected families

She revealed that N200m worth of farm produce bought from farmers during the Cross River north Agric Festival would also be distributed to the most vulnerable families to cushion the effect of stay-at-home order of the government.

She also disclosed that “so far the state has produced 5000 bottles of hand sanitizer and hope to produce 5000 more in the next two days. These alongside nose masks are to be given out free of charge. So far, Cross River is covid-19 free as confirmed by the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC)”