Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State said on Wednesday that the state would explore ‘home-grown solutions’ in the prevention and cure of COVID-19 in the state.

Makinde said since Nigerians had their ways of dealing with flu, catarrh and cough differently from the Western world, the state would devise a cure.

The governor said this during a briefing shortly after the state’s COVID-19 Task Force meeting held at the Government House, Agodi, Ibadan.

He said as part of measures to contain the spread of coronavirus in Oyo State, the government was already working on laws that would compel the use of face masks.

Makinde, said, “We are looking at local solutions. I know that a lot of people have been calling me all sorts of names on the social media but, from my experience, one thing that I know you have to do to conquer the virus is that you have to boost your immunity. We do have local solutions and, of course, we have to defer to experts’ opinion as part of the home-grown solution to deal with COVID-19.

“People may ask if we have been funding the research institutes very well. They may even ask if we are in a position to bring any kind of solution to the world. My answer is yes. Even chewing something like bitter-cola. When the western world was having flu season, they had flu shots. But here, we have things like catarrh. When we are crossing over from dry season to rainy season, people always fall sick. Cold, cough, catarrh, we have ways of dealing with all of these locally.”

The governor said the isolation process for the two new confirmed cases of COVID-19 had already been initiated and contact tracing and collection of samples had commenced.