Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state has extended the partial lockdown and dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed on the state by another two weeks as part of measures to check the spread of Coronavirus in the state.

This is just as he clarified that of the 24 Coronavirus cases being investigated in the state, 23 of the number who were contacts of the state’s index came out negative while another suspected cases had been placed on self-isolation in Konshisha Local Government Area of the state.

Governor Samuel Ortom who made the disclosure Wednesday at the end of a joint meeting of members of the State Executive Council, SEC and the State Action Committee on COVID-19 in Makurdi also disclosed that the SEC had reviewed the state’s 2020 budget of N195billion to N119billion following a sharp drop in revenue accruals to the state.

The Governor explained that the measure became necessary in view of the increasing rate of the spread of the virus in parts of the country and the need for the government to sustain existing measures aimed at checking the spread of the disease in the state.

He said, “the State Executive Committee met with the Action Committee on COVID-19 and after exhaustively discussing all issues concerning the safety and wellbeing of our people we resolved that the measures we had put in place to check the spread of the virus in the state should be sustained and continued for another two weeks.

“This became necessary because of the rising infection rate in parts of the country. It is painful that we have to do this but the survival and safety of our people is paramount though we have not recorded any fresh case apart from the index case who was moved to Abuja and together we will prevent the virus from gaining entrance into our state,” he added.

The Governor urged the people of the state to brace up to the looming global recession occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic as predicted by the World Bank by returning to the farms where the state had it comparative advantage to produce food for self sustenance and sale to local and international markets. (Vanguard)

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