By Frank Momoh
The Edo State Government has said that the Stella Obasanjo Hospital, which has been repurposed as an infectious diseases centre in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in the state, would receive confirmed cases of the disease from Tuesday, April 7.
Commissioner for Health, Dr. Patrick Okundia, disclosed this while conducting journalists round the Infectious Disease Isolation Unit of the Stella Obasanjo Hospital, in Benin City.
He said the state government has isolation centres in the three senatorial districts of the state, including the Stella Obasanjo Hospital, University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) and the Ogbe Nursing Home in Edo South; Auchi General Hospital in Edo North and the Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital in Edo Central.
Noting that the state has acquired 30 ventilators and built an ultra-modern infectious disease facility, he said, “We have 30 ventilators that are being distributed across the isolation centres in the state. As from Tuesday, April 7, we would be moving some of the confirmed cases of COVID-19 into this facility at the Stella Obasanjo Hospital. The ventilators here would be used in managing the critical cases of COVID-19.”
He added that the state government would be opening a 31-bed ultra-modern infectious disease facility at the Stella Obasanjo Hospital next week which together with the existing 10-bed unit would serve as the main isolation centres while the other sections of the hospital would be used as holding facilities.
“When patients are brought in, they would be held at the main hospital building, while we send their samples for testing. If they are confirmed positive, they would be moved to the infectious disease unit for close monitoring and expert treatment. One unique thing about the Stella Obasanjo Hospital is that it has an incinerator, which would be used to dispose the materials from the infectious disease treatments,” he said.