Tina Amanda
Chief Medical Director University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital UPTH, Professor Henry Ugboma, has said that the hospital is working on a second COVID-19 isolation and treatment Center with twenty bed spaces.
Professor Ugboma who made this known to newsmen on Monday said the expansion became necessary as it facility can no more accommodate the number of COVID-19 cases recorded at the hospital.
According to him, the rate at which COVID-19 is spreading has become an issue of concern, adding that the hospital has recorded a total of three deaths from COVID 19, discharged over forty patients, while about fifteen health personnel of the hospital have tested positive for the virus.
“Right now, our COVID-19 facility is finding it difficult to accommodate the number of cases coming in to UPTH, that made us start working on a second isolation Centre with twenty (20) bed spaces which will be commissioned sometime this week.
“The rate at which the COVID-19 is ravaging the society is much, some of our staff about fifteen of them have tested positive to Corona Virus. We have lost about three (3) patients to COVID-19 since we started and we have discharged over forty patients, while some are still awaiting their test results”
The Chief Medical Director further stressed that the hospital is ready to collaborate with individuals, Organizations who are willing to provide needed support to save the lives of people of the state.
“COVID-19 is indeed an expensive venture that has thrown the economic of some countries back ward and Nigeria is not an exception. It is difficult to cope with the financial stress in getting the consumables, PPEs, equipment and machines involved both in the laboratory, isolation and treatment centres.
“We need lots of support and we are ready to collaborate with anyone that is willing to assist the hospital with personal protective equipments and well needed materials that will help in the fight of COVID 19”
Professor Ugboma, however, reaffirmed that UPTH Resident Doctors have pulled out from the nation wide strike, as they considered the lives of the people to be more important.
