…”7 more cases will be discharged today”
By Audrey Lotechukwu-theG&BJournal
THUR, APRIL 09 2020-theG&BJournal- ‘’We are seeing between 5 to 10 new cases everyday which suggests that the outbreak is seemingly under control in Lagos,’’ the Lagos State Health Commissioner, Prof. Akin Abayomi reported today during the State’s daily briefing on COVID-19 outbreak.
‘’If it is out of control we will be seeing an increasing numbers of cases on a daily basis. For example we might see 10 today, 15 tomorrow and twenty the day after. So what we are doing in Lagos is working.’’
He also spoke to the far reaching measures the state has put in place to combat the virus spread as well as efforts to scale up capacities in all areas to be able to effectively tackle the disease and stop the spread completely.
He noted that the state has been preparing for this type of event for five years, since after the Ebola outbreak in 2014, when the state’s weaknesses, in terms of resilience to an outbreak situation caused by an extremely contagious pathogen, were exposed.
‘’We knew that we had to strengthen certain structures and build certain expertise. We have been doing that quietly and diligently with the support of multiple ministries. We knew that this kind of event was going to happen but we didn’t just know when but as soon as we saw the outbreak creeping around the world we knew that this was the time and so we hastened our response and preparedness,’’ Prof. Abayomi said.
He said the State Government launched the incident command structure one month before the first case hit the shores, a reflection of the pro-activeness of the State Government and its ability to look into the future and prepare and improve on resilience to these kinds of shocks.
The data at the moment is that the state have a total of 145 confirmed cases, 32 are completely recovered and discharged, 7 more will be discharged today which will bring the total discharged cases to 39. There have been 2 deaths but none in the state’s facility and so far the state have scored 100% recovery from the cases that are admitted in their facilities.
Of importance is the state’s capacity to test. There are now three independent testing facilities in the state, and one of the most sophisticated laboratories in Africa, built through the collaboration of the Canadian Government and the Lagos State Government, and it has the capacity to carry out very advanced laboratory diagnosis and also has one of the most sophisticated bio-banks.
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‘’At this facility we are increasing our capacity to diagnose COVID-19 every day and as we do that, we will also be able to increase our screening of vulnerable population with the state. We have been increasing the isolation bed capacity also. There are already about 280 isolation beds. The current occupancy is about 100,’’ the Health Commissioner said. ‘’So we have an excess of 180 isolation beds. The isolation centres are also being consciously increased.’’
The Primary isolation Centre is at the Yaba Mainland Hospital. The Onikan Facility has also been commissioned with the aid of the GT Bank, which worked in collaboration with the Lagos State Government. The Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) isolation facility has just been opened in collaboration with the Federal Government.
‘’We are working very fast to commission the Gbagada isolation facility which is a very sophisticated 150-bed isolation facility and we are working with the private sector to develop another tented isolation facility at the Landmark location..’’
Both will be coming on stream next week and that will further increase the state’s isolation bed capacity to well over 300, approaching 400. In addition the state now has 4 quarantine facilities, facilities which were rapidly converted to holding bays, where suspect cases can be isolated until the results of their tests are out.
The state officials have been able to intercept three cross border incursions and in the process taken into care 67 Nigerians that have come in from Cote d’ Ivoire, put them into one of the quarantine facilities in Badagry, and another 27 is line to be received so that they can under go the mandatory 14 days isolation, then tested and then necessary action taken depending on the outcome of the test conducted on each individual.
About 10% of the individuals intercepted tested positive for coronavirus.
‘’So this movement of people is an area we are watching very closely to make sure that it does not increase the number of imported cases,’’ Abayomi said.
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