The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has approved an emergency weekly payment of N100,000 per person for individuals placed in isolation or quarantine as part of efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The Director-General of the NCDC, Dr Jide Idris, disclosed this during a press briefing in Abuja on Sunday.

According to him, the financial support was introduced after some contacts complained about the financial burden of feeding, accommodation and maintaining their families while undergoing mandatory public health monitoring.

Idris said the agency is already covering accommodation and feeding costs for those in isolation facilities, but some contacts requested additional stipends to support their families.

“We are paying for their accommodation; we are paying for their feeding. Some of them are asking for a stipend to maintain their families,” he said.

“We are providing N100,000 per person per week just to maintain their comfort and feeding, because they were complaining.”

He described the payment as an emergency intervention that was not part of the agency’s original response plan but became necessary due to prevailing circumstances.

“This was not planned for, but it is an emergency. We will continue to review it as we go along,” he added.

The NCDC boss also warned that the responsibility for financing emergency public health interventions should not rest solely on the FCT, stressing that state governments must make adequate financial and logistical provisions to respond to similar outbreaks in their jurisdictions.

“This is not the responsibility of the FCT alone. What we have to do for the FCT, we have to do for any other state, just in case,” he said.

Source: Punch Newspapers