Minister of health shares how you can help government fight Coronavirus

Nigerian’s minister of health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, is appealing to citizens who have empty buildings to donate them as Coronavirus isolation centres.

Recall that in a previous media briefing, the director-general of the NCDC, Dr Chikwe Ihekwazu, stated that Nigeria was running out of bed spaces for Covid-19 patients.

Well, the minister has now formally appealed to citizens to donate empty homes as isolation centres. Before the plea, Nigerian comedian, I Go Dye had donated his mansion as an isolation centre to the government.

“I have appealed to citizens to make their property available temporarily for this purpose. I am sure that after that, there are many property owners who will come up and donate to state governments for a period of time to be used for this function,” the minister says.

“We are not out of space now but we are making the appeal ahead of time so that we have these facilities ready,” he adds.

Ehanire says as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) prepares to test two million people in the next three months, more buildings would be needed as isolation centres.

“Ultimately, we might have to change our strategy a little bit and start considering home care in certain circumstances where a patient can be managed sufficiently.

“We’re struggling at the moment. We might have to adapt our strategy because of the realities we face over the next few days.”