Ekiti sets up task force as UCH, FCTA train 400 health workers

Abuja gets two isolation wards
The Ekiti State Government yesterday set up a 40-man task force on Covid-19 headed by Governor Kayode Fayemi to tackle the Coronavirus outbreak.

Fayemi, who stated this in his address to the people of the state on the Coronavirus issue, said the task force would include representatives of all relevant sectors and medical experts.

He allayed the fear over the virus saying, “There is no cause for alarm! There should be no cause for panic in Ekiti State and indeed the entire country over the reported case of Coronavirus, because measures have been set in motion by various governments to respond adequately to the scourge.”

Besides, the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Professor Abiodun Otegbayo, yesterday said the hospital has begun the training of over 200 staff members of the hospital on best methods to curtail the spread of Coronavirus.

Otegbayo, who stated this while addressing journalists on activities marking his one-year in office as CMD of the health institution, said the UCH had been on the red alert since the outbreak of Coronavirus was reported.

Otegbayo, stressed that power and water supplies were the main challenges confronting the hospital, said UCH had done so much in terms of awareness and training against the outbreak of the virus.

Meanwhile, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has opened two isolation wards at the National Hospital and at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwgagwalada, for suspected cases of the virus.

Director of FCT Public Health Department, Dr. Josephine Okechukwu, however, said at the moment, there is also an ongoing training by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in Keffi, Nasarawa State, for healthcare workers to enable them to manage the virus if it occurs in any part of the territory.

It has so far trained 200 health workers in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) and Abaja Area Council on Lassa fever and Coronavirus, while sensitisation of residents was ongoing in all the six area councils of the FCT.