By Tanimu Muhammad
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), has commissioned a 506-bed space Isolation and Treatment Centre located at the Idu Railway Station, Abuja.
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), Muhammad Bello while inaugurating the four storey facility, disclosed that it was a private sector intervention coordinated by the Ministerial Expert Advisory Committee on Covid-19 to contain the killer virus in the nation’s capital.
Bello who explained that FCT was almost having ‘a redundancy of bed spaces’ with about 1000 bed spaces to 356 Covid-19 patients, warned residents to observe all protocols so that the pandemic does not escalate to make the available facilities inadequate for containment.
The Minister said the FCT Administration is working very hard to stop the escalation of Covid-19 pandemic in the territory, stressing that there would be strict enforcement of all protocols to control the spread of the disease and urged all the residents of the FCT to take the fight against Covid-19 as a personal fight for survival.
He further said in addition to the provision of medical facilities, FCTA was also providing palliative items to the most vulnerable and poorest of the poor in the Territory to cushion the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on them.
“As you are aware, in the last one week all process of gradual easing of lockdown has commenced in FCT. However, this has shown that the wider community is not very compliant with respect to social distancing and other protocols.
“So I want to use this opportunity based on what we have here and what we have at Asokoro Hospital as well as what we have at Karu General Hospital to say that we have enough redundancy of bed spaces but that should not make us to be complacent.
“Because if we do not continue with what we are doing now with a lot of restrictions and compliance, then if this thing gets out of hand, we may wake up and find that the facilities we have might not be enough,” Bello warned.
Speaking earlier, Chairman, FCT Ministerial Expert Advisory Committee on Covid-19,
Dr Aliyu Modibbo urged Nigerians to be committed to the ongoing fight against the pandemic and assured that his team would not relax until Covid-19 was contained in the FCT and the country at large.