CORONAVIRUS: 12 TEST NEGATIVE AS LAGOS CONTINUES SEARCH FOR ITALIAN'S CO-PASSENGERS

PROF ABAYOMI

The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof Akin Abayomi, has said no fewer than 12 people suspected to have contracted coronavirus have tested negative while three more are under isolation at the Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba.

Addressing a press conference in Lagos on Monday, Abayomi said they were still searching for two more passengers who boarded the Turkish Airlines flight with the Italian who brought coronavirus to Nigeria.

He named them as Godfrey Obumnore Enwelunta and Sadeeq Abiodun Salami.

The commissioner said, “We have tested 12 suspected cases, they are negative and they’ve gone home.

“Right now we have three in isolation at the Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba, we are awaiting their results, if they are negative they will go home and if any one of them is positive, then we will admit the person.

“We have two passengers on the flight that brought the Italian to Lagos that we have tried our best to find even with security officials, and as of this morning, we still have not been able to find them and as promised.”

He said the duo must have provided wrong information.

He added that the people who had had contact with the secondary case would start the 14-day isolation period.

Abayomi said, “What has transpired is that the contacts in Ogun State that are working at Lafarge Cement, Ewekoro, who came in contact with the index case have been under isolation in Ewekoro. We have tested the 40 individuals in isolation in Ewekoro at Lafarge factory because that is the group that had close contact with the index case.”

On the Index case, the Commissioner said, “I see him almost every day, he is now sitting on his balcony and has no fever, the only reason he is still with us is that his tests are still positive, that means that he is still secreting the virus but his body has overcome the virus and with time, he will eliminate the virus.”

Mamora warns travellers

Meanwhile, the Minister of State for Health, Dr Olorunnibe Mamora, has advised Nigerians not to travel to countries where coronavirus is present.

Mamora, who spoke at the 34th anniversary of Healthcare Magazine in Lagos on Monday, said the Federal Government might have to change its approach towards preventing, detecting and treatment of coronavirus.

‘COVID-19 not as deadly as Ebola’

Also, ex-Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr Jide Idris, told federal and state governments to build on the lessons learnt during the 2014 Ebola outbreak.

Speaking also at the 34th anniversary of Healthcare Magazine in Lagos on Monday, Idris said, “During the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, we all knew what we went through, but to some of us that was a lesson, especially in this part of the world, the virus caught us unawares. We can we stopped it in Lagos, but we were lucky because if we were not in Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea. Any right-thinking government will look at it as a lesson and start to build on it.”