The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Acting Managing Director, Prof. Kemebradikumo Pondei, has promised that the agency would contribute ventilators and oxygen to help combat coronavirus.

He said NDDC would intervene to protect the lives of people of Niger Delta from the deadly coronavirus disease, otherwise known as COVID-19.

Speaking at the NDDC headquarters in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on Tuesday, March 24th, 2020, Pondei said as an interventionist agency, the commission would collaborate with other stakeholders in the country’s battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said,

We have started looking at different isolation points in the nine states of the Niger Delta region. We are interacting with the states to find out what is on the ground and we are taking stock of the ventilators and oxygen in health facilities across the region.

Pondei said coronavirus disease treatment was not limited to drugs, but included the ability to ensure patients were able to properly breathe and that should be achieved by the use of ventilators.

Pondei said,

This morning we found that there are about 500 ventilators in the entire country. We are exploring avenues to see if we could intervene in providing ventilators. Similarly, oxygen is difficult to procure in the country.

The Federal Government through the ministry of health has a policy on oxygen, which has not been disseminated very well. There are very few oxygen production plants in the country and some of the existing ones have actually broken down. But the provision of oxygen is key to the treatment.

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.