Coronavirus: Facilities in FCT, Ogun, others not ready, FG deploys more doctors in airports

Isolation centres for potential patients suffering from the coronavirus disease are not ready in the Federal Capital Territory and some states such as Kano, Rivers and Ogun, The PUNCH’s investigations have revealed.

Our correspondents’ findings in the FCT and the states showed that while some of the centres were still under construction, others lacked necessary equipment for patients and medical personnel that would work in the centres.



It was also gathered that the Federal Government had posted more medical personnel to international airports to assist in the screening of passengers.

Nigeria recorded its first coronavirus case on Thursday when an Italian businessman, who was on a visit to Lafarge Africa Plc, Ewekoro, Ogun State, was diagnosed with the disease.

The Italian, who arrived in Lagos on Monday aboard a Turkish Airlines flight, was said to have spent the night in a hotel around the airport before he was driven in a Lafarge vehicle to Ewekoro on Tuesday morning.

When he fell ill on Wednesday, he went to the company clinic, where he tested negative for malaria and he was subsequently referred to Lagos, where he tested positive to coronavirus.

The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, had on Saturday said the Italian was clinically stable.

Both the Lagos and Ogun state governments have identified no fewer than 100 people who had contact with the index case. At least 39 of them are being quarantined in Ogun State.

FCT isolation centre still under construction—Resident doctors

In the FCT, when one of our correspondents visited the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada on Sunday, he observed that the proposed isolation centre was actually under construction with low dry grass surrounding part of the premises.

Although there were no construction workers on site, an employee of the hospital said they were present until Saturday evening and that they only rested on Sunday. She said they would resume work on the site on Monday.

Doctors at the teaching hospital said the health institution was not ready to serve as an isolation centre in the event of coronavirus cases.

As part of its preparedness for coronavirus, the Federal Government said some isolation centres had been identified across the country, with one of the facilities said to have been located at the UATH.


It said in case any passenger developed coronavirus symptom at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, the person would be housed at the teaching hospital in Gwagwalada, Abuja.

The Chairman of the Association of Resident Doctors in the hospital, Dr Bob Abbah, in an interview with The PUNCH, said the level of preparation was low and that the hospital management did not involve resident doctors in any preparation for coronavirus.

He said, “There is a building on the premises that has yet to be completed; that is the proposed isolation centre. People are talking about the hospital as an isolation centre (for coronavirus); that is how we heard about it. Nobody has called us (doctors) to inform us or involve us in any discussion or preparation that a centre has been put in place.

“We heard that the uncompleted building is an isolation centre but we have not been briefed on any modality or (handling of) equipment in the centre. We do not know what equipment has been brought in to work with.

“In fact, when I heard that there was a patient with haemorrhagic viral fever and that he was to be referred to the teaching hospital, I was wondering where he would be taken to (isolated) because the isolation centre I know is the one under construction.”