Nigerians asked to loan empty buildings as isolation centres

Nigeria’s health minister has appealed to property owners around the country to consider loaning empty buildings to be used to help house patients who've tested positive for coronavirus.

Dr Osagie Ehanire said the empty properties could be donated to state governments for a short period of time.

His comments come as the director general of Nigeria’s Centre for Disease Control revealed officials were “struggling with bed spaces” in certain areas.

He added that Kano and Abuja were of concern, but Lagos, the country’s epicentre for the Covid-19 outbreak is the “biggest challenge”.

He said his team are looking at all options including possible home care, but are currently working with the state governments to try and mitigate the use of that.