FCTA converts national women centre to isolation facility

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), has converted the National Centre for Women Development to an isolation centre for management of COVID-19 patients.

The FCT Minister of State, Dr Ramatu Aliyu, made the disclosure when she inspected the centre on Monday in Abuja.

Aliyu said the centre had the capacity to accommodate over 160-bed spaces with catering services for an efficient, effective and impactful response to the pandemic.

“This centre has a very large hall of about 100-bed capacity and we also have about 60 suites in the centre.

“This gives you a total of 160-bed spaces. This tells you how much we can accommodate in case we have an increase in the number of patients to be isolated,” Aliyu said.

She revealed that the FCT Administration (FCTA) had carried out decontamination of the infection disease centre to guard against the COVID-19 spread.

“We are here at the National Centre for Women Development to fumigate the premises completely, not only to check COVID-19 spread but to also check insects and rodents.

“We are not praying that there should be an increase in the number of cases but should be ready to accommodate them and we are ready,” Aliyu said.

The Director-General of the centre, Mary Ekpere-Eta, assured the minister that besides the 160-bed spaces, the centre classrooms could also be converted to accommodate an additional 300 patients.

Ekpere-Eta said the centre has two industrial kitchens capable of catering for the patients.

In a related development, the minister also received 1,000 cartons of palliatives front Honeywell Nigeria Ltd to support the administration’s efforts in reaching out to the vulnerable.

The palliatives include semolina, noodles, spaghetti, macaroni and wheat meal.

The minister promised that the palliatives would be distributed to the vulnerable in rural communities of the FCT.