Moshood Adebayo
The Lagos government has quarantined six persons among them four children over their contact with a coronavirus patient.
Commissioner for Health, Akin Abayomi, at a press conference, yesterday, said the four children and two adults have been quarantined at the Mainland Hospital, Yaba.
“The four children and their teacher were quarantined after coming in contact with an infected person.”
Abayomi said the four children and their teacher were admitted into the isolation centre in Yaba two days ago to see if they would develop symptom of the disease after they had contact with a patient.
He said the first test conducted on them tested negative, but noted that another test would be conducted within 48 hours for a final confirmation.
Another man from the United Kingdom, who he said had been quarantined, would also undergo test conducted on him to ascertain his status.
He said the state government was carrying out regular tests on people to ascertain their coronavirus status almost on daily basis.
He also disclosed that government had established contact with the two people declared wanted, who were in the Turkish Airline with the index case, an Italian.
Nigeria recorded its index case on February 24 after an Italian entered the country on a business trip. A second case has also been confirmed.
The virus which broke out in Wuhan, China, in December, has infected over 100,000 persons.
But the commissioner said there was no cause for alarm as he assured that another test would be conducted on the Italian within two days for a second negative confirmation and that once that had been done, he would be released.
“The index case is very well, no symptom, but test shows he is still secreting the virus. But the virus has to go to zero point before he can be released. There are some drugs recommended for coronavirus. What we are waiting for is for the immune system of the Italian to clear the virus. He is actually better, he can’t leave until the virus is completely clear and zero. While he is better, he is not better for community yet; we cannot release him because he may infect others. The day he is negative, we will wait for two more days and if he gets a second negative, we will release him. We are satisfied with the second coronavirus patient, we will repeat his test tomorrow and based on the test, we will know the way forward.”
Nigeria recorded its index case on February 24 after an Italian entered the country on a business trip. A second case has also been confirmed.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO)has declared the virus which broke out in Wuhan, China, in December, and has infected over 100,000 persons, pandemic.
Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, announced this during a media briefing, yesterday.
Pandemic is used to describe a disease outbreak that has spread to several countries and affected a large number of people.
“In the past two weeks, the number of cases of COVID19 outside China has increased 13-fold & the number of affected countries has tripled. There are now more than 118,000 cases in 114 countries, & 4,291 people have lost their lives,” he said.
“Thousands more are fighting for their lives in hospitals. In the days and weeks ahead, we expect to see the number of #COVID19 cases, the number of deaths, and the number of affected countries climb even higher. Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. It is a word that, if misused, can cause unreasonable fear, or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over, leading to unnecessary suffering and death.
“Describing the situation as a pandemic does not change WHO’s assessment of the threat posed by this coronavirus. It doesn’t change what WHO is doing, and it doesn’t change what countries should do.
“I remind all countries that we are calling on you to activate & scale up your emergency response mechanisms, communicate with your people about the risks & how they can protect themselves, find, isolate, test and treat every #COVID19 case & trace every contact.”
According to the WHO, 118,000 cases have been confirmed globally.