Admin l Thursday, November 05, 2020
PORT HARCOURT, Rivers – The Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has handed over Polymerase Chain Reaction, PCR, machines and related medical items to three teaching hospitals and one College of Health in Rivers and Delta States for the fight against the Coronavirus, COVID-19.
Handing over the medical equipment to representatives of the hospitals in Port Harcourt, the NDDC Acting Managing Director, Prof. Kemebradikumo Pondei, said that the distribution of PCR machines across the Niger Delta region would help in both testing of patients for COVID-19 and also for research purposes.
Prof Pondei, who was represented by the Director Health and Social Services, Princess Philomena Oputa, said that the equipment would impact positively on the lives of the people of the Niger Delta region and address their health concerns as it relates to COVID-19.
He noted: “We are continuing with the distribution of PCR machines across the Niger Delta region. The handover should have taken place in the institutions but they were so excited and could not wait and decided to come and carry the equipment themselves.
“We are still distributing and we are going to send to the remaining states that are not here today because that is the original plan.”
Responding, the Chief Medical Director, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Prof. Henry Ugboma, said that the equipment would go a long way in improving service delivery in the health institutions.
He said: “I can assure you that as we have received this, we are going to put it into good use and I am asking that in a very short time, NDDC will call us again for further assistance.”
Also speaking, the Provost College of Health Science, University of Port Harcourt, Prof. Iyeopu Siminialayi, noted that the equipment were expensive and not easy to come by. He added: “We thank the Federal Government for approving the money for the NDDC that made it possible to get these equipment. We look forward to a mutually beneficial partnership with the NDDC.”
In his own remarks, the Director of Health Services of Rivers State University, Dr. Dagogo Cooky-Gam, thanked the NDDC for assisting health institutions in the Niger Delta region. He said that the equipment will enable the university to set up a laboratory that would help in testing students and other members of the university community.
