COVID-19: Lagos reopens isolation centre as infections surge

LAGOS State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, said the state government has opened more isolation centres to contain the pandemic spike in the state.

  Prof Abayomi made the disclosure through his verified Twitter account @ProfAkinAbayomi on Wednesday, while giving update the state’s COVID-19 status for January 10.

  Lagos State had shut down some isolation centres last year with the decline of COVID -19 cases.

  The Indo Isolation Centre, a private COVID-19 care Centre with 50 bed capacity was among the seven Centres shut down by the state government when the state’s COVID-19 cases declined in 2020.

  Other COVID-19 care centres that are still shut down are Landmark, Gbagada, Agidingbi, Onikan, First Cardiology Consultants Hospital and Lagoon Hospital Centre.

  With the activation of the Indo Isolation Centre, there are now nine public and private treatment centres for COVID-19 patients in the state.

  Abayomi listed the other eight care centres to include: Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH), 1 and 2, Yaba, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Armour, Paelon, Vedic, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), and Federal Medical Centre, Ebute Metta.

  He said that the bed occupancy in the state’s public and private COVID-19 Care Centres have increased to 61 per cent.

  According to him, the Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH 2) Isolation Centre is almost filled up, while the Paelon Isolation Centre is filled with patients.

  In its fight against COVID-19 the state recently commissioned the Triage and Oxygen Therapy Centre at Eti-Osa Local Government Area to handle COVID-19 patients with severe symptoms.

  Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu said the centre will provide swift emergency oxygen therapy to patients in the area who require it.

  He said the need to better manage severe-to-critical COVID19 cases spurred the state government to build and deploy the oxygen therapy centres in 10 high-burdened local government areas, including Eti-Osa.

  The Eti-Osa triage and oxygen centre is located within the premises of the Eti-Osa Maternal and Child Care Centre and will double as a COVID1-19 sample collection centre.