Africa’s most populous country of 200 million people has only 3,500 COVID-19 bed spaces in all 36 states and its federal capital city of Abuja.

Ehanire says as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) prepares to test two million people in the next three months, more buildings would be needed as isolation centres.

“I have appealed to citizens to make their property available temporarily for this purpose. I am sure that after that, there are many property owners who will come up and donate to state governments for a period of time to be used for this function,” the minister said.

“We are not out of space now but we are making the appeal ahead of time so that we have these facilities ready,” he added.

During a media briefing on Thursday, April 30, NCDC boss Chikwe Ihekweazu said a shortage of bed spaces to treat COVID-19 patients could undermine his work. “We're going to work with Lagos to keep trying to make more spaces available.

"Ultimately, we might have to change our strategy a little bit and start considering home care in certain circumstances where a patient can be managed sufficiently.

"We're struggling at the moment. We might have to adapt our strategy because of the realities we face over the next few days."

Nigeria has reported 1,932 COVID-19 cases, 319 recoveries and 58 fatalities as of April 30, 2020. 

The country’s commercial hub and most populous city of Lagos has confirmed 976 cases with 225 recoveries.

President Muhammadu Buhari has announced a phased easing of lockdown restrictions and nationwide overnight curfews from May 4, in a bid to revive a dire economy.