In another tense situation, the Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said on Thursday that more COVID-19 cases in the state are in dire need of oxygen to survive.
The governor, who disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, expressed concern at the present situation of COVID-19 cases at the state’s isolation facilities.
He said more COVID-19 patients in the state are in need of oxygen, hence the decision of the state government to build 10 oxygen tents.
The governor said: “On COVID-19, it is actually a very serious case. We have all said it, we are in the second wave and incidentally, the second wave seems to be a bit more infectious than the first one. I mean the rate of infection and the number of people that we have seen. We still remain the epicentre, so what we have done is, we never stopped building capacity.
“One of the things that we are doing now is communication and we are taking it to the grassroots to let people know that they need to take full responsibility and know that even for their loved ones, they need to be real with themselves and know that COVID-19 is real. It is with us and it is not just something playing in their heads.
“We have seen, unfortunately, the fatality rate around the country, even in Lagos. One of the things we have realised is that a lot more people require oxygen attention. They need additional breathing aid, so we have started building what we call oxygen tents.
“We are building about 10 of such facilities. We have commissioned about four or five of them and we are also building proper oxygen plants in the state so that we can meet the respiratory requirements.”
Sanwo-Olu stressed that the government is still focused on rebuilding the infrastructure destroyed during the #EndSARS protests of October last year.