Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Mallam Muhammad Musa Bello on Wednesday inspected a five-storey building that can serve as an isolation and treatment facility for COVID-19 patients in Abuja, should the need arises.
The building, 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 center as required by the health authorities.
Mallam Bello, who was accompanied by senior officials of the FCTA, said that the building could be ideal as an isolation and treatment facility.
A statement made available to journalists by the Minister’s office quoted him as saying that, “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 power here constantly, and there is adequate water supply.
He however said that the relevant health authorities will further inspect the facility to determine its suitability.
He 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 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. She said “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.
Malam Bello, in his press briefing on the preparedness of the FCT for the Coronavirus said that while the FCT Administration was making concerted efforts to curtail the spread of the virus in the FCT, multiple health centres were being prepared in case there was an escalation in the number of patients.
