By Michael Olugbode
Saudi Arabia has handed over 23 ventilators worth $1 million to the Nigerian government to combat COVID-19.
This is the first batch as other equipment are still being expected from the country to assist in the fight against COVID-19.
The other equipment expected include 25,000 surgical sterile gowns, 125,000 non-sterile surgical gowns, 188,000 KN95 masks, 1,606,700 surgical masks and 9,500 nitrile gloves.
According to a press release on Tuesday by the the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, the equipment are already been shipped and are expected to arrive the country on July 1.
The release said this is not the first time the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will be contributing to Nigeria’s health sector as she had earlier through the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre in collaboration with Al-Basra International Foundation launched a voluntary medical campaign for combatting blindness and its causes in Nigeria.
Saudi Arabia also plans to organize 12 voluntary medical campaigns with 11 of the campaigns planned for combatting blindness and its causes in Nigeria, while the other campaign involves catheterization and heart surgery which will be holding in Kano and Bauchi States and targeted 50,000 beneficiaries.
This would have 4,000 cataract and glaucoma operated with 10,000 medical glasses and necessary medicines dispense.
Saudi Arabia, through the programme, is also targeting 70 catheterization and heart surgeries in the South-south and South-east of the country.
Receiving the ventilators on behalf of Nigeria, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Abdulaziz Abdullahi, promised that they would be put into good used.
He appreciated the donation from the government of Saudi Arabia.
