The Federal Government has asked state governors to, at least, provide 300-bed space facilities in their respective states

in case of an upsurge in the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic spreading across the country.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said this on Friday, April 3rd, 2020 in Abuja, while updating Nigerians on the Federal Government’s efforts to curtail the spread of coronavirus on a News Agency of Nigeria Forum.

He also said he was optimistic that the Federal Government take advantage of the COVID-19 experience to further develop the healthcare facilities in Nigeria.

We pray sincerely that we will not fall into the same error after we fought Ebola, and we relaxed.

We intend to use the opportunity of this coronavirus to improve our health care system at the federal, states and local government levels.

Nobody ever thought that what is worse than Ebola will come. The successes we have achieved so far is through technology, sharing data with WHO, US Centre for Disease Control,

he said.

As a member of the Presidential Task Force for the Control of Coronavirus, Mohammed said that the healthcare facilities would serve as COVID-19 isolation centres and Intensive Care Units.

The information minister said that while testing for coronavirus is centralised, it would not be easy to move people that test positive for the virus across state lines.

The governors must not wait for a deluge of patients before making the preparation.

We are not asking them to build hospitals, but if they have facilities that can be converted such as hotels, conference centres, let us know and we will come and accredit them.

We will tell them what equipment they would need and what type of training we are going to give as support,

he said.

Mohammed praised the cooperation the states has given the task force had so far, in the fight against the deadly disease. Furthermore, he assured the citizens that the Federal Government would continue to take the lead role and set the policies to eradicate the virus in the country.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.