FCT minister commissions 400 capacity molecular lab in Kubwa

FCT Minister Mallam Muhammad Musa Bello has commissioned a new Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory donated by the Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19 as its “Legacy Project” at Kubwa General Hospital on Monday.

Mallam Bello expressed the appreciation of the FCT Administration and residents of the territory to the committee under the chairmanship of Dr Aliyu Modibbo Umar, a former minister of the FCT, describing their contributions to the FCT in the fight against COVID-19 as immeasurable.

The minister said,“without any fear of contradiction, I wish to say that the Ministerial Expert Advisory Committee displayed an immeasurable sense of duty and deep love for country and humanity.”

He added that the efforts of the members of the committee assisted the FCT Administration in setting up its flagship Isolation and Treatment Centre at Idu with the resources mobilised by its members through their wide network of associates.

Mallam Bello further disclosed that despite the status of the FCT as an epicentre of the disease in Nigeria, the efforts of the committee and the entire COVID-19 response ensured that relatively few fatalities were recorded in the FCT while meeting testing targets.

The minister also paid tribute to the medical personnel who lost their lives in the course of the fight and observed a minute’s silence for the repose of their souls.

Bello promised that the FCT Administration will work towards the establishment of similar facilities in the other area councils using the public-private sector funding model as recommended by the Ministerial Expert Advisory Committee.

The chairman of the committee, Dr Aliyu Modibbo Umar, said the sum of N202,000,000 was raised from various donors and the committee decided unanimously to bequeath the FCT with the Legacy Project of a Biosafety Level II Molecular Polymerase Chain Reaction COVID-19 Laboratory at the Kubwa General Hospital.

The laboratory, Dr Umar added, is capable of testing for not only COVID-19 but other infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, Lassa fever, Ebola, HIV, the Hepatitis Spectrum and Yellow Fever.