Emergency Operations Centre, Lagos

Emergency Operations Centre, Lagos

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has again re-assured Nigerians that the State remains committed to preventing human-to-human transmission of the virus, following the index case reported last Friday.  

He said both the State and Federal Government healthcare officials have been working round the clock with infectious disease control professionals from the international agencies to ensure the counter measures being deployed to contain the virus achieved the desired results.

He said this during his visit to the State-owned bio-security and containment facility at Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH) in Yaba, Lagos Mainland, where the Italian national diagnosed with COVID-19 is being managed. 

Sanwo-Olu said he is highly confident in the response approach initiated by the State’s Incident Command Centre in the wake of the outbreak of the virus, expressing optimism that the nation would survive the epidemic and put it behind us. 

“I keep on expressing to the Commissioner for Health that we must stop at nothing to achieve the very best result.”

Governor Sanwo-Olu said the State has already upgraded its isolation facilities at the IDH in the case of escalation in the number of cases, revealing that two additional containment centres had been created with 80 bed spaces and necessary medical equipment to manage cases. There are also, there are two mobile isolation wards of 15-bed capacity each stationed in the hospital. 

Reacting to the report of scarcity of sanitary materials at pharmacy shops across the State, the Governor condemned the action, saying it was wicked for people to take the advantage of emergency situation to hoard and jerk up the prices of face mask and hand sanitizer.

He said: “This should not be the means for anyone to enrich themselves. It is unfortunate that people are hoarding these important sanitary materials. We need to speak to ourselves. I think it is unacceptable for people to sell above the prices they used to sell before the outbreak. These people should search their conscience and ask themselves what kind of people are we. We should be our brother’s keeper.” 

Sanwoi-Olu also frowned at misinformation trailing the COVID-19 case being managed at the IDH, saying the public deserved to get accurate information about the management of the patient in isolation. He urged the media practitioners to approach the appropriate quarters for updates and developments on the case being managed.

“Our citizens need to be calmed and assured that the professionals deployed to handle the virus outbreak are constantly on the ground to do it. The media should communicate and give accurate report to our citizens to let them know that authorities and the professionals that need to be on ground are working tirelessly to curtail virus,” he said.

He said he would be meeting with Governors of neighbouring States on Monday to draw up strategies in scaling up advocacy on the virus among people and also to design more community-based approaches that would prevent the spread of the virus. 

Commissioner for Health, Prof Akin Abayomi, likened the State’s response towards containing the outbreak of COVID-19 as “a war”, saying Lagos had deployed three levels of counter measure to stop the spread of the virus, which include medical, security and research.

He disclosed that Lagos and Ogun governments were constantly exchanging information, following the outbreak, adding that the movement of the index case had necessitated more cooperation between the two States.

“We are always in a state of extreme readiness and one step ahead of the virus. We are doing everything within our power to break the cycle of transmission of the virus in our land”.