Lagos tracks contacts of index case of Coronavirus

The Lagos state government has started tracing persons that might have had contact with the index case of the Coronavirusinfection in Nigeria in order to start the isolation and containment of exercise that will break the cycle of transmission of the disease.

The State Commissioner for Health, Prof Akin Abayomi who disclosed this at a press briefing in Lagos on Thursday, said the state has set in motion efforts to expand its isolation capacity.

“The important thing to know is that the patient is confined and we have started to identify his contacts all the way to the airline."

"That process started around 3.00am this morning. We would like to assure everybody that we are on this case to ensure that we can identify everybody that he must have come into contact with."

“His symptoms are subsiding and he does not have signs of respiratory disease which is a good thing, but he does have fever and body pains. If he had respiratory illness it is probably like that he may be more contagious than he is at the moment."

“At our infectious disease facility, we have ramped up capacity to isolate suspected cases. We are now sitting on an about 80-bed isolation facility because of the emergency funds that have been released by the incident commander. We need more capacity in case we have an increased number of cases in Lagos.”

Abayomi said Lagos has a very aggressive public awareness campaign going on and has have engaged in extensive training across the hierarchy of health professionals in Lagos.

“In addition, we are building capacity to diagnose in Lagos and right now we can run the test in two centres in Lagos, one is in the biosecurity facility and the other at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH. We are in constant contact with the Nigeria Centre for Diseases Control, NCDC, and Minister of Health in Abuja.”