COVID-19: CACOVID Donates Ultra-Modern 150-Bed Facility To Lagos

By Tosin Olatokunbo

The Coalition Against COVID 19, CACOVID, led by Africa’s richest man and chairman of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote has handed over to Lagos state government an ultra-modern 150 bed space isolation center fully equipped with state of the art medical equipment.

The donation came on the crest of shortages of bed spaces at isolation facilities to treat coronavirus cases

The center was the sixth facility in the state dedicated to the treatment of COVID-19 patients, and is equipped with medical laboratory and high dependency unit; personal protective equipment and other critical medical consumables; water and sewage treatment plants; 11kv power generator amongst other essentials.

It also comes with an addition to 34,000 test kits, sample collection swabs and infrared thermometers recently delivered to the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, NCDC.

While commissioning the multi-billion naira facility, Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, expressed gratitude to members of CACOVID who, he said have displayed rare patriotism and public spirit by putting resources together to partner with governments to tackle the global pandemic.

Sanwo-Olu said the donation speaks to the can-do spirit of Nigerians as well as our private sector. He said “The facility will certainly add to our capacity and enable us to do a lot more in scaling up.

This centre will see us building an international infectious disease- research centre, isolation wards and doctors quarters.

We are excited that people can come here, get well and go back to their respective homes.”

The governor assured that the donated facility would be used to provide adequate treatment to those who are infected and help to stop the overall spread of the virus within the state, urging all citizens to continue to take responsibility and follow directives of the government and health professionals towards reducing the spread of the virus and saving lives across communities.

According to him “We need to take responsibility because the virus knows no race, ethnicity, religion or boundary. We need to take responsibility for our loved ones by wearing face mask, maintaining social distancing and hand hygiene to reduce morbidity and mortality,” the governor said.

Alhaji Dangote who was represented by the CEO of the Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF), Zouera Youssoufou, explained that the newly commissioned isolation centre is the most elaborate one that has been built so far.

“We are very proud because this isolation center is a model of what we are going to be doing in the remaining states as we are still building more across the federation. So it is with great pride that we hand over this to the Lagos state government as this is very important,”  the mogul said.

On his part, Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank said, the the newly built isolation centre will surely help in boosting the capacity of Nigeria’s healthcare system towards containing the spread of COVID-19 in Lagos state.

Emefiele called for a strong coalition to tackle the pandemic, which he said has had unprecedented impact on the global economy and indeed the Nigerian economy.

The apex bank governor said “This un-parallel shock must require that all state governments along with the organised private sector must work together to address these challenges in order to preserve lives and restore economic activities in our country.

“We have implemented several initiatives to cushion the effects of the pandemic which include the N50 billion intervention facility for house-hold and SMEs that were adversely affected by the pandemic, N100 billion facility for the health and pharmaceutical sector and a N1 trillion facility for the agricultural and manufacturing firms of the economy.

“Our inability to accurately predict the extent to which the virus could spread and how long it will last requires that we build a sufficient capacity within our healthcare system in order to prevent the spread of the virus and preserve the lives of vulnerable Nigerians and this requires that all parties come together in order to deal with this great challenge.”

Also speaking, Access Bank Plc managing director Herbert Wigwe said that Lagos was more vulnerable to spread of the virus due to its large population. He however, commended the state government for its efforts to reduce the spread and effect of the virus on the citizens. He also appreciated the state government’s support to CACOVID.