Coronavirus: Gombe governor unveils isolation, treatment centres

Gombe State Governor, Inuwa Yahaya, has commissioned the state’s Coronavirus (COVID-19) isolation and treatment centres set up by his administration.

He stated that the health of the people cannot be equated to any amount spent to ensure their wellbeing.

Answering questions from journalists on efforts so far put in place by his administration to address the challenges of the coronavirus, Mr Yahaya said his government is willing to spend more to contain the pandemic as well as reposition the health sector.

The governor said the essence of putting up the isolation and treatment facilities is to prepare the state against the outbreak of the coronavirus “and to save lives in case of any eventuality”.

Governor Yahaya disclosed that while the state awaits the delivery of the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) machine, “his administration is engaging the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and World Health Organisation (WHO) to get necessary accreditation to establish a molecular laboratory in the state that could serve as a test centre for as many viruses as possible.”

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He said the decision to close schools and social centres in the state was to promote social distancing which has so far been proven as an antidote to the spread of the virus.

He also answered questions on the youths recently apprehended by the rapid response team of the state taskforce on the restriction of inter state movement for coming into the state from Lagos.

Governor Yahaya said the youths were quarantinined as this was the proper procedure to check the possible spread of the coronavirus, “especially given the fact that the youths were coming from Lagos which is the epicentre of COVID-19 in Nigeria.”

Meanwhile, the chairman of the state taskforce, Idris Mohammed, described the facilities provided as “state of the art and some of the best one can find for the management of COVID-19 cases.”

The facilities unveiled by the Governor included a 150- bed capacity isolation centre at Kwadon infectious diseases hospital, for the management of mild to moderate cases; a fully equipped 50- bed capacity facility at the Federal Teaching Hospital and a 12- bed capacity intensive care unit (ICU) fully equipped for the management of severe cases, including mechanical ventilators, oxygen concentrations, cardiac respiratory monitors and other needed facilities.