COVID-19: ‘Only five states, Abuja have enough bed spaces’

With the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the country, it has come to light that there are only 5,324 bed spaces in 112 COVID-19 isolation and treatment centres in the country.

The Minister of State for Health, Olorunnibe Mamora stated this at the Press briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 on Wednesday in Abuja, adding that 21 states in the country have fewer than 100 bed spaces each in their isolation centres.

The minister also added that only five states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, had at least the prescribed 300 beds.

The minister said: “Though not surprising, we are concerned about the increasing number of confirmed cases. This is because very high cases could seriously exceed the capacity of our health system to cope. Routine cases may also suffer as a result. Therefore, non-pharmaceutical preventive approach is still our best strategy.

“At present, we have a total of 112 treatment and isolation centres in all the 36 states and the FCT with 5,324 beds. While only five states including the FCT have at least 300 beds as prescribed for isolation and treatment, 21 states have less than 100 bed spaces.

Mamora also appealed to state governors and philanthropists in the country to come to the rescue and help expand the isolation and treatment centres.

“As the number of confirmed cases increases, there is an urgent need to expand our treatment centres across the country. I therefore call on the state governors and philanthropists to take active and deliberate steps to scale up the number of beds for isolation and treatment of confirmed cases in their states.”

The health minister alos revealed that the Nigerian medical researchers working with foreign partners had been able to ascertain that the strain of COVID-19 in Nigeria was the same in Wuhan, China, where the virus first broke out.