Abba Kyari, the late Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari died at First Cardiology Consultants Hospital in Lagos. It is the same hospital wherein 2014, Nigeria’s Ebola index patient died as well as the late Stella Adadevoh who prevented further spread of the disease.
Akin Abayomi, Lagos State Commissioner for Health, disclosed this in a series of tweets this evening in what he described as an update following inquiries about Kyari’s death.
According to him, the First Cardiology Consultants Hospital is “a Lagos State designated high care, biosecurity-compliant, #COVID19 facility, accredited by the Health Facility Management and accreditation agency of @HEFAMAA_LASG of the Lagos State Ministry of Health.”
He further tweeted that as a basis for accreditation, the hospital established a separate specialist wing with staff dedicated to the treatment of complicated cases of the novel coronavirus, under the supervision of the Lagos State #COVID19 emergency response team.
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However, the revelation by the Lagos state government contradicts public statements on the treatment of the coronavirus patients by private facilities.
Last week, Abayomi was reported to have said that private health facilities were not permitted to handle known coronavirus cases, and did not indicate if exemptions had been granted.
“We are not encouraging the private sector to manage COVID-19 at this point in time for a number of reasons. It is still an issue of the state and national security that cases of COVID-19 are managed in recognised facilities,” said Abayomi at a press conference on April 6.
Osagie Ehanire, the Health Minister, had also said during a briefing by Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja, that although some private hospitals had shown interest to treat the virus, none met the criteria to receive approval yet.
“No accredited private hospital has been given approval in Abuja. Lagos is looking at some accredited hospitals. There’s one large hospital in Lagos that has called me and said they want to become a coronavirus treatment centre,” he said during the briefing aired on Channels TV.
Ehanire explained that “The structure of the hospital is that they are ready to remove all present patients they have and do nothing but coronavirus treatment. That would be good because they don’t stand the chance of cross-infection. But, at the moment, there is no hospital that has met the criteria,”
Kyari, who died from complications of COVID-19, was buried according to Moslem rites at Gudu cemetery Abuja earlier today.
