COVID-19: FCT minister unveils 300-bed isolation and treatment centre

Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Muhammad Bello on Wednesday inspected a five-storey building that can serve as an isolation and treatment facility for COVID-19 patients, should the need arise in the territory.

The building, which located at the Idu area of the FCT, is a new training facility that can be modified to suit the purposes of a treatment and isolation centre as required by health authorities. Bello said the building could be ideal as an isolation and treatment facility.

“The most critical thing is that this place has a lot of space. We are talking of five floors. I don’t think the whole of Abuja will have a hospital facility that can accommodate up to five floors. More importantly, there is constant power here, and there is an adequate water supply,” the minister said.

He indicated that relevant health authorities will inspect the facility to determine its suitability.

“I leave it now for the officials of the Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and of course our public health officials. Jointly, they will decide what needs to be done here and we have a lot of commitment from the private sector organisations who are willing to support the national efforts to fight this disease. Once they all agree, I’m sure that within a very short period of time, this place can be made functional.”

In his comments, the acting Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretariat, Dr Muhammed Kawu, said the building was very adequate and can be converted into a 300-bed facility.

The Director of Public Health, Dr Josephine Okechukwu, said the structure was ideal and would serve the purpose as a treatment centre.

“This is a perfect place that we have been looking for and it’s quite good. It’s a new structure with so many available rooms that we can fix up for now as a holding centre or a treatment centre if need be,” she said.