Kano and Lagos run out of bed spaces as coronavirus cases rise in number
Aliyu says about 80% of coronavirus patients in the country are receiving treatment outside isolation centres.
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Aliyu made this know during the PTF briefing on Thursday, June 11, 2020.
Lagos has the highest number of confirmed cases of the pandemic with 6,266 cases followed by Abuja and Kano with 1,097 and 1,025 cases respectively.
While responding to questions on Thursday, Aliyu said that there were concerns on the availability of bed spaces considering the rise in the number of cases of the virus across the country.
On Tuesday, June 9, 2020, Nigeria recorded 663 new cases of the virus in 26 states, the highest number of cases ever announced in one day.
Aliyu further disclosed about 80% of coronavirus patients in the country are receiving treatment outside isolation centres.
He said, “Availability of beds varies across states. About 80% of those that are positive in the country are currently being managed outside isolation facilities.
“Some states have a lot of capacity in terms of beds. I know Kano and Lagos have run out of beds. A few other states are red. We actually have a line listing, an amber-coloured listing of states that are in the red where you have more positive cases than beds available.
“We cannot move patients around from one state to the other, so obviously, if we run out of spaces — Lagos, for instance, may have five or six times the number of cases than Kano which is the second state in terms of numbers of cases — you are going to have a lot of people contributing to that population.”
It would be recalled in April, the Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Chikwe Ihekweazu raised the alarm that the country was running out of isolation beds to treat victims of the pandemic.
Ihekweazu while speaking during a media briefing on Thursday, April 30, 2020, said Nigeria had only 3,500 bed spaces in all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
However, as of Wednesday, June 10, 2020, 13,873 coronavirus cases had been confirmed in Nigeria.
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