Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mohammed Musa Bello has today inspected a five-story building located at Idu, Abuja which the government has decided it will be put to use as a facility for the isolation and treatment of the COVID-19.
The Minister said the new building will be modified to suit the purpose for both the Isolation and treatment as required by health experts to argument the available one.
A statement obtained from the minister’s office quoted the Minister saying that “the most critical thing is that this place has a lot of space, we are taking all the five floors”.
The Minister further stated, “I don’t think the whole of Abuja will have a hospital facility that can accommodate up to five floors.
More importantly, there is power here constantly, and there is an adequate water supply.
Meanwhile, he said the relevant health authority will have to visit the facility to determine its suitability for the purpose.
Mr Bello said, “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 organizations 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 reaction, Dr Mohammed Kawu, the acting secretary of Health and Human Services secretariat said the building was very adequate for the purpose and can conveniently accommodate 300-bed spaces.
In her contribution, Dr Josphine Okechukwu, Director of Public Health reiterated that the facility was ideal and would be utilised, saying, “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.
The Minister concluded that the FCT administration was making a concerted effort to arrest the tide of the scourge through making available health facilities that would be utilised.
