The Lagos State Government is set to reopen two more COVID-19 isolation centres for more patients as cases of the infection rise leading to a second wave of the pandemic.

The State Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi, who disclosed this on Thursday added that the reopening will boost confidence in tackling cases as they arise.

“Just to be on the safe side, we are reopening two of our decommissioned facilities, that is at Ajah and Ikeja. We are also reopening Gbagada Isolation facility.

“Just to give us the confidence that, should in case we suddenly continue to see higher numbers of severe cases, we will have somewhere to manage them,” Professor Abayomi said.

The Commissioner added that the state government is working on building oxygen plants for more health facilities.

“In addition, we are making our own oxygen so we just erected the first of two plants at IDH. The second one will be at Gbagada and that plant produces oxygen on the grounds of our hospital and it can produce up to 60 cylinders a day. A very sick patients can use up to four or six cylinders in 24 hours,” he said.

Nigeria on Thursday reported 23 fresh COVID-19 deaths and 1,479 new infections within 24 hours.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) disclosed this via Twitter on Thursday night and noted that the new infections were recorded in Lagos, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and 23 other states.

Lagos, however, remains the epicentre of the virus with 697 cases on Thursday with the FCT trailing behind with 201 infections.