The Governor of Osun State, Gboyega Oyetola, on Wednesday commissioned an isolation centre with 160 beds in Osogbo as part of efforts to curb the coronavirus pandemic in the state.
Oyetola said that a group, the Coalition Against COVID-19 (Ca-COVID), donated equipment, consumables and 100 beds. He said the state government added 60 beds for the facility, now called Mercyland.
He said it would serve as an addition to the government’s other initiatives in containing the spread of the virus.
Mr Oyetola said his government had renovated and equipped three other isolation centres which include, 130-bed facility in Ejigbo; 12-bed capacity in Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, a 20-bed isolation centre and 8-bed Intensive Care Unit at State Specialist Hospital, Asubiaro, Osogbo, making 342-isolation beds and eight ICU-bed facility in the state.
“We are adopting a holistic approach to winning the pandemic, including working with the National Centre for Disease Control and the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.
“We have dedicated personnel doing contact tracing, testing of contacts, isolation and care of patients for quality treatment. We have extensive publicity and sensitisation programmes in place to educate and update our citizens regularly on how to stop COVID-19 in its tracks.
“There has also been provision of palliative for citizens, introduction of lockdown and curfew as appropriate to ensure effective containment of the virus without hurting our economy and livelihoods.”
He also appreciated the coalition for its support and urged residents to abide by the laid down health rules to curb the pandemic.