10th March, 2020
The Lagos State Government has said that the patient who recently tested positive for Coronavirus will be managed at the Biosecurity Facility of the Mainland Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba.
Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi who disclosed this on Monday at a news conference to give updates on #COVID19Lagos explained that the patient who tested positive to #COVID19 is one of the 40 persons who had close contact with the index case.
According him, the 40 persons had been in isolation at Lafarge health facility in Ewekoro in Ogun state since the confirmation of the index case.
Abayomi stated further that the second confirmed case of #COVID19 indicated the first person-to-person transmission in Nigeria.
He noted that Lagos State Government through the State Ministry of Health has resolved to take responsibility for the management of the secondary case because State has the required facility and equipment for proper management of highly infectious diseases.
The Commissioner said the resolve to take responsibility for the management of the patient is because Lagos State is not ready to take chances with the spread of the disease especially when proximity of both States is taken into consideration.
“What transpired is that the secondary case is one of the 40 suspected cases who came in close contact with the index case and had previously been in isolation at Lafarge Health Facility in Ewekoro. .
“We conducted test for 40 people because that is the group that had contact with the index case who is currently being managed in our biosecurity facility at Yaba and out of the 40 contacts one tested positive to #COVID19”
“We felt that it is in the interest of all that the patient be managed at the Mainland Hospital Yaba. This is why the patient is being moved from Ogun state to Lagos”. Abayomi said.
The Commissioner assured members of the public not to panic stating that government will continue to respond swiftly and take necessary actions to contain the spread of the disease.
He noted that the fact that the patient had been previously isolated limit the number of possible contacts he must have had.
“The good news is that we have identified him early enough. We are not taking chances and we do not wait for suspected case to develop symptoms before we carry out test. We have also isolated all those that have had contacts with the patient”. Abayomi said.
He stated that the search for two remaining passengers who flew on the Turkish airline with the index case continued.
The Commissioner urged members of the public to assist in the search of the passengers whose names he gave as Enwelunta Godfrey Obumnore and Sadeeq Abiodun Salami; both males.