Didier Drogba offers hospital as COVID-19 treatment centre

Football legend Didier Drogba has allowed his hospital in Ivory Coast to be used as a coronavirus treatment centre, reported TalkSports.

The sports radio station said in a story on its website that the Didier Drogba Foundation opened the hospital in the 42-year-old’s home town of Abidjan in 2016. The infirmary is named after Ivory Coast footballer Laurent Pokou.

The head of Abidjan’s regional council, Vincent Toh Bi Irie, thanked Drogba for the gesture.

“We thank Drogba for this gift, considered as an act of patriotism,” he was quoted as saying.

The hospital is set to be made functional by the Ivory Coast government.

“It’s up to the state to validate it and make it functional,” Didier Drogba Foundation director Mariam Breka said.

According to the World Health Organization figures, on Tuesday Ivory Coast’s confirmed cases of COVID-19 were sitting on 626, with six deaths.

Earlier this month, the 2012 Champions League winner slammed two French doctors after they suggested testing a vaccine for the coronavirus in Africa.

“It is totally inconceivable we keep on cautioning this: Africa isn’t a testing lab. I would like to vividly denounce those demeaning, false and most of all deeply racist words. Helps us save Africa with the current ongoing COVID-19 and flatten the curve,” Drogba wrote in a tweet.

In partnership with ANA and Sports Leo