5th June, 2020
The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, said the state home-based treatment for COVID-19 patients will begin in the next two to three weeks.
Abayomi made this known on Friday in Lagos while giving the state’s COVID-19 update.
He said that the strategies for home/community-based management of COVID-19 patients would be defined and start soon.
The commissioner said that the move was to enable the state government to concentrate on patients that were critically sick and to reduce pressure on bed spaces at the isolation facilities.
He maintained that the state would engage stakeholders and enlighten them with relevant information and knowledge about treating infected people in their communities.
According to him, patients that are asymptomatic and those with mild symptoms will qualify for home-based treatment, while those with moderate to severe symptoms will be treated at the isolation centers.
The commissioner said the patients that would be managed at home would be monitored through telemedicine.
According to him, they would also be given COVID-19 packs containing medication, thermometer for temperature measurement, and tools to check their oxygen level.
Abayomi, however, stressed that if the condition of any home-based patient “takes a turn for the worse, such patients would be quickly transferred to an isolation facility”.
He said that the state has enough volunteers, thus increasing its manpower to ensure the success of the community-based treatment.
On why the state’s fatality rate for COVID-19 had increased, Abayomi said the fatality rate was still low, adding that it was about one percent of the state’s confirmed cases.
The commissioner disclosed that the state had accredited three private hospitals that met its biosecurity requirements for the management of COVID-19 patients.