*
The Ministry of Health handed over the Addis Park (Millennium Hall) which had been used as a Covid 19 medical and emergency response center for the past two years to MEDROCK Investment Group.
The Minister of Health, Dr. Lia Tadesse, said when she handed over the center to MEDROCK Investment Group, in the last two years, there have been many ups and downs to prevent the covid 19 epidemic. She mentioned that, “although the problem caused by Covid 19 has not stopped today, we are happy to have made it to this day and to be able to hand over the Millennium Medical Center”.
Dr. Lia recapped that there has been a great effort to prevent Covid 19, starting from the National Committee led by the Honorable Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed to the community. She thanked the National Committee for their prompt response to the request to use Addis Park as a Covid 19 medical center, at the height of the epidemic
.
Dr. Lia Tadese stated that after eight weeks of preparation, work has started by converting the halls into a hospital and supplying the resources, and many people have been able to heal there. She thanked the Millennium Medical College of St. Paul's Hospital for its effective work in taking charge of the work and coordinating others.
She said that, “today we are closing the Covid 19 Medical and Emergency Response Center and returning it to its original status, not because Covid 19 has disappeared, but because we have created the capacity to provide the service in other health facilities and have been able to deliver vaccination coverage across the country and reduce the damage caused by the disease.” She further urged that the members of society who have not taken the vaccine should take it and they should apply their precautions without neglecting the disease.
Dr. Lia said that information should be well organized so that the activities carried out at the center can be passed on to future generations; she also had thanked and presented certificates to all those who had gathered at the center and provided sincere service to the patients.
Jamal Ahmed, Chief Executive Officer of MEDROCK Investment Group, who spoke during the recognition and handover, said that the activities of the center in the past two years have proved that the owner of MEDROCK, Sheikh Mohammed Ali Alamuddin, has always demonstrated that his assets are available for the benefit of the public. He said that just as the company gave 120 million birr to COVID prevention and the Hall to the Addis Ababa government and to the Ministry of Health for free, are ready to do everything they can to answer public questions.
The director general of the medical center, Dr. Weletau Chane, said that over the past two years, more than eight thousand covid 19 patients have been treated and cured in one thousand medical beds, including the surgical and ICU units of the center. He recalled that the service was provided to 1633 surgical seekers and 20 percent of the people infected with Covid 19 across the country were treated at the center.