Kwara State Government has dismissed claims across the state suggesting that a local delicacy of yam flour, popularly called amala, cures the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The Permanent Secretary, Kwara State Ministry of Health, Abubakar Ayinla, dismissed the claims on Tuesday in Ilorin during the daily routine meetings of the medical team of the Kwara COVID-19 Technical Committee.
Ayinla said the state government has set up risk communication teams, among others, to manage rumours and false news circulating as regards COVID-19 in the state.
He explained that the teams were set up to allay fears of misconception, while reiterating that COVID-19 has no cure for now and that amala cannot cure it.
Ayinla said the patients with COVID-19 at the Sobi Isolation Centre were faring well, adding that the state government was caring for their necessary needs.
The Director, Primary Health Care at the health ministry, Dr Michael Oguntoye, explained that the state presently has three COVID-19 isolation centres across the state.
According to him, the Sobi Isolation Centre currently has 300 bed spaces for different levels of care as well as the intensive care unit together with high risk unit.
He noted that the whole of the Sobi Hospital has been converted to an isolation centre.
The other isolation centres, he said, included the Hajj Transit Camp which has been turned to an isolation centre and establishment of another isolation camp at Offa.
Oguntoye also said the state had acquired two new ventilators.
Kwara currently has four confirmed cases of COVID-19.
