The Minister of FCT, Muhammad Musa Bello, has commissioned a 506 bed Isolation and Treatment center located at Idu district of the Federal Capital City handed over to the FCTA by the Ministerial Expert Advisory Committee on Covid-19 chaired by former minister, Aliyu Modibbo Umar.
Speaking during the handover ceremony, Mr Umar disclosed that the committee was charged by the minister to mobilize human, financial and material resources to support the FCTA in the fight against the pandemic within the territory.
Mr Umar added that the center was as a result of coordinated efforts and partnership between the committee, the FCTA and other private organizations.
Furthermore, the chairman revealed that all members of the committee have volunteered to offer free service, out of patriotism and determination to defeat covid-19 in the city.
“The committee, which is broken into 4 sub-committees comprising of medical, Logistics, Resource Mobilization & Public Affairs and Information/Communication made up of volunteers and other experts all resolved to work pro-bono. Our reward, lies in the pleasure of having to serve Abuja and we will not rest until covid-19 is defeated in the FCT,” he stressed.
In his remarks, the FCT Minister expressed his gratitude to the committee for working tirelessly with all relevant FCT agencies to provide needed advice, suggestions and interventions that have aided in the containment of the virus to a large extent.
“Let me begin by expressing our appreciation to this great committee for this very magnificent and well established treatment facility. I would also like to use this opportunity to reveal to the wider public that in addition to this facility, the committee has also intervened by providing a 350kva generator with other ancillary equipment to the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital isolation center and Karu General hospital each,” he said.
Mr Bello revealed that plans were already underway to establish a new isolation center in an effort to continue to build on capacity.
“I want to also add that in addition to this facility you are seeing here, we are already in discussion with the committee to see where we are going to move for the next new isolation center” he said.
The minister also appealed to all stakeholders to work hard and together in order to ensure that established health and security protocols are adhered to.
He further stated that the despite the partial easing of the lockdown within the territory, the social distancing directive was still not duly observed.
“As you are aware, in the last one week, a gradual process of easing of lockdown has commenced in the FCT. But our experience has shown that the wider community up until now is not very compliant in respect to social distancing.
“I want to use this opportunity to say that while in the FCT, based on what we have here and what we have at Asokoro District Hospital, Karu General Hospital and other facilities been provided by other well-meaning institutions and organizations, we could say yes we have enough redundancy of bed spaces. But that should not make us to be complacent because if we do not continue with the way we are doing now with a lot of restriction and compliance, then if this thing gets out of hand, even though we can boast of 1000 bed space, we may wake up and realize that won’t be enough”.
He then tasked residents of the FCT to embrace the fight against Covid-19 as a personal fight.
Also present, were the Minister of State, FCT, Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu; Permanent Secretary, FCTA; Chief of Staff to the FCT Minister; WHO officials and other senior officials of the FCTA.
