Skip to main content

Isolation centres running out of space for patients

May 1, 2020

The fear of lack of bed space for coronavirus patients at isolation centres has gripped the government.

There are 3,500 bed spaces at the various isolation and treatment centres in the country. These will became inadequate given the anticipated spike in positive cases as a result of the planned testing of two million people.

Lagos, which is the epicentre of the pandemic in the country, with close to 1,000 case as at Thursday, out of which 718 are active and 192 discharged, is worst-hit.

It has about 540 bed spaces, at the five official isolation centres, excluding the spaces at private facilities including the one in Badagry.

The government is now seeking the possibility of home treatment.

Besides, owners of uncompleted buildings or empty property are urged to donate them to the government for use.

Speaking at the Presidential Task Force (PTF) media briefing in Abuja on Thursday, Minister of Health Dr. Osagie Ehanire said: “It is true that we are getting a surge. If you hear the announcement made by the Director- General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), it is that they want to do two million tests. That will bring up a lot of cases. We know that. That’s the purpose, to bring up the cases and take care of them before they infect more people.

“I am appealing, not only to state governments, but to citizens, to make properties available temporarily for this purposes. I am sure that there are many property owners who will come up and look at their empty and donate them for a period of time to the state governments to be able to use these facilities for this function. That is the reason why I made that appeal.

”We are going to look for bed spaces. We are not right now. We are not out of space (yet) but we are making that appeal ahead of time so that we have these facilities and these spaces ready. As the President said, we want to be ready but we hope we don’t need them. We hope and pray we don’t need these facilities but we need them to be present, to be there.”

Director-General of the NCDC, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, added: “Concerning the availability of bed spaces for the management of patients, there is no doubt that we are struggling in certain places especially in Lagos State, and to an extent Kano and Abuja. But the biggest challenge right now is in Lagos where bed spaces are really tight.

“Across the country we have about 3,500 bed spaces identified as available for coronavirus but in Lagos we are already struggling. So, we are going to work with them to keep trying to make more spaces available.

The federal government also cautioned Nigerians yesterday that gradual easing of restrictions on activities and movements should not be mistaken.

Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman of the PTF, Mr Boss Mustapha, gave the warning.

He said: “As we approach the commencement of the first of a three phased easing of lockdown from Monday May 4th ,2020, it is important that Nigerians receive and digest the implementation guidelines.

”It is also important for States, Law enforcement Agents, trade associations, employers, businesses and citizens to understand their roles, obligations and responsibilities.

”Above all, we must understand that this is still a war against an unseen and potent enemy. No one should mistake the easing of restrictions for permission to act without care. The Security Agents have been instructed to respect the rights of citizens while also ensuring strict enforcement.

Mustapha announced that National Coordinator Dr Sani Aliyu, was absent at the briefing, because he lost his father.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Virus Likely to Keep Coming Back Each Year, Say Top Chinese Scientists

Covid-19: Immunity, Reinfection, and Flattening the Curve Unmute Covid-19: Immunity, Reinfection, and Flattening the Curve SHARE THIS ARTICLE Share   Tweet   Post   Email Chinese scientists say the novel coronavirus will not be eradicated, adding to a growing consensus around the world that the pathogen will likely return in waves like the flu. It’s unlikely the new virus will disappear the way its close cousin SARS did 17 years ago, as it infects some people without causing obvious symptoms like fever. This group of so-called asymptomatic carriers makes it hard to fully contain transmission as they can spread the virus undetected, a group of Chinese viral and medical researchers told reporters in Beijing at a briefing Monday. With SARS, those infected became seriously ill. Once they were quarantined from others, the virus stopped spreading. In contrast, China is still finding doz...
Post a Comment
Read more

COVID-19: NCDC to increase testing – official

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says it remains focused on the fight against the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Nigeria. The agency said on Monday in Abuja that it would increase testing for the virus across the country as a strategy to succeed. Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, Director-General of NCDC, gave the re-assurance at the daily briefing by Presidential Task Force on COVID-19. “I will like to remind everyone that we remain focused on our target which is to increase testing across the country; during a pandemic, the risk of spread is in those towns where the population density is highest. “We are all aware of the population density in Kano. The high number of cases we are now seeing in Kano is really not a surprise,” he said. “Since reporting its index case about two weeks ago, Kano has been the centre of controversies ranging from the rapid increase in number of confirmed cases to the sudden halt of its only testing centre. “Kano, which cur...
Post a Comment
Read more

NCDC targets two million people for COVID-19 test in three months

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is targeting two million Nigerians for Coronavirus (COVID-19) tests in the next three months, the agency’s Director-General, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, hinted on Tuesday. Speaking in Abuja during the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 Control, Dr. Ihekweazu said the target was in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive for aggressive reinforcement of testing and contact tracing measures. He said: “The laboratory strategic group that is responding to this outbreak has set itself a target of testing two million people in the next three months. This is a very ambitious target. We are working very hard with our development partners and all our friends to equip our labs to be able to do this. “It is going to cost us a lot of money but we can’t do this without a lot of collaboration from everyone. In countries that have achieved a lot more in terms of testing like in South Africa that we always refer to, they have...
Post a Comment
Read more