Lagos Unveils 150-Bed Isolation Centre Built by CACOVID

Lagos Unveils 150-Bed Isolation Centre Built by CACOVID

Set to establish international disease research centre

By Martins Ifijeh

The Lagos State Government has unveiled a 150-bed space isolation centre built by the Private Sector Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID).

It has also disclosed plans to erect a purpose built international infectious disease research centre at the Mainland Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba as part of the state’s COVID-19 response and other infectious disease preparedness post pandemic era.

Stating this at the unveiling of the isolation centre in Yaba Sunday, the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu said plans were also in top gear to build ‘Doctors’ Quarters’ and permanent isolation wards to ramp up capacity for any infectious disease outbreak in Lagos as part of the global master plan for the Mainland IDH.

He said: “Our infectious disease hospital is seeing a lot of brand new things coming up.
I commend CACOVID for donating the state-of-art 150-bed isolation centre to Lagos for COVID19 response. The facility will certainly add to the state’s capacity and enable it do a lot more in the war against the pandemic.

“This is the 6th dedicated isolation centres that we have, although we have other several facilities we are using for quarantine and holding bay. I want to on behalf of the people and government of Lagos State commend the coalition for this facility”, he said.

Sanwo-Olu however noted that beyond putting up isolation facility for COVID19 case management, it was important for citizens to understand the need to take responsibility against the pandemic.

He added that: “It is not a function of how many isolation bed space that is built but a case of ourselves taking responsibility, understanding that this virus knows no race, colour or age. Indeed we need to take responsibility because of our loved ones. COVID-19 is real and we owe it a duty to tell our people to be very cautious and take precautionary measures and ensure that it is only when we do all of this things that this pandemic can be defeated”.

“When we say that if you feel unwell and you’ve been tested that you isolate yourself even if you don’t have severe symptoms, it is really so that you can protect your loved ones and the vulnerable in your family and society so that we can slow down the morbidity and fatality that might come out from a raging pandemic such as this. That is why we cannot lose this opportunity to reiterate the importance of wearing your face mask at all times, practicing hand hygiene and physical distancing”, the governor stated.

Earlier in his remarks, the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi explained that the 150-bed isolation facility had a fully contained PCR and routine laboratory, a bouquet of administrative and ancillary facilities, a water treatment plant, a waste management system and three power generators for case management.

“This is an extension of facilities at Yaba where we have about 120 isolation beds and well established intensive care unit (ICU) for patients with severe to critical case. The donated facility by CACOVID will serve as an additional 150 beds for us to manage the more moderate to severe cases of COVID19 and if any of them needs intensive care, they would be moved across to our ICU”, Abayomi said.

In his remarks, the Managing Director, Access Bank, Herbert Wigwe commended the state government and the governor for the timely and good response against the COVID-19 pandemic. He noted that a lot has been done by Lagos in its response against the disease.

“We are proud to have worked very closely with a very strong team to set up what is a model state-of-the-art isolation centre here in Lagos. I must commend the State team with the level of transparency, painstaking attention to detail which we have to go through to make sure that the facility we have here is what can be compared to any other in other parts of the world,” he said.

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