Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has revealed that the demand for oxygen by coronavirus patients has increased to 400 cylinders per day.
Sanwo-Olu made this known on Sunday in a statement while updating Lagosians on the management of coronavirus in the State.
He reiterated that oxygen was free in all Lagos State-owned COVID-19 treatment centres, stressing;
Considering that oxygen demand has spiked to between 300 and 400 cylinders per day across state-owned treatment facilities, the government is working hard to ensure availability.
To this end, a second oxygen plant is under construction at the Gbagada General Hospital and will come on-stream within the next seven days.
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He stated;
It is expected that this will boost the in-house capacity and availability of oxygen across all state government-managed treatment centres.
Sanwo-Olu added that Lagos State Government was making efforts to transform the state-owned isolation centre in Gbagada into a fee-paying facility that people could elect to be treated at.
He said the decision was due to the growing clamour by patients and families who were willing to pay for COVID-19 treatment, but would like to do so at a cost that was lower than what was currently obtainable at private facilities.
Sanwo-Olu explained;
This means that the COVID treatment facility in Yaba will continue to offer free and high-quality treatment to all persons.
Gbagada centre will offer treatment at a moderated and affordable cost to those who wish to take advantage of extra offerings like private treatment rooms and more personalised levels of care.
He said that the government established a telemedicine service, EKOTELEMED, for patients who were either asymptomatic or had mild symptoms that did not require admission and could, therefore, be managed in the comfort of their homes.
The governor said that EKOTELEMED was manned by well-trained medical personnel and available on a toll-free line, 08000EKOMED (08000356633).
Sanwo-Olu encouraged as many people as possible, whose cases fell in the asymptomatic or mild category, to take advantage of the EKOTELEMED service.
Meanwhile, Lagos state recorded the highest number of the new cases with 355 infections in the country on Sunday. the state now has a total of 49,274 confirmed cases and 314 deaths.
