The Lagos State Government has said that 3 cases of suspected Coronavirus are under isolation at the containment facility in Yaba.
The Commissioner for Health, Prof Akin Abayomi, said the three suspects came from France, England and China, respectively.
“Their samples have been taken and results are been expected,” he explained.
“One of the suspects, a Nigerian who had stayed in France for seven days and returned to Lagos, Nigeria three days ago, was presented with headache and some respiratory symptoms, and because he has been in a country where there is active person-to-person transmission, it could be a common cold but there is a possibility that it could be COVID-19.
“He has been isolated, the test is being run and the result would be made available when it is ready,” the Commissioner stated.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner said the ministry intensifying efforts in the search for two more persons yet to be identified who were amongst the passengers aboard the Turkish Airline the index case of the Novel Coronavirus in Nigeria, an Italian national, flew on.
Abayomi, who said this on Thursday while giving updates on the COVID-19 control efforts in Lagos, explained that out of the 15 people who were yet to be identified as at Wednesday, March 4, thirteen had been identified bringing the number of unidentified passengers who came aboard the flight to Lagos to two.
The Commissioner reiterated that the Turkish Airline boarded by the COVID-19 Lagos index case had 149 passengers on board and that 15 out of the 80 passengers on the flight who are Lagos-based were yet to be identified.
“The state government will continue in its search for yet to be identified persons and will not rest on its oars until everyone on the flight who reside in Lagos are identified.”
He, however, noted that the World Health Organization (WHO) is assisting with contact tracing of passengers on the same flight who had left the shores of Nigeria, adding that the state government is practising aggressive public health surveillance as a measure to break the circle of transmission of COVID-19.
On the index case, who is presently in isolation at the Mainland Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba, Abayomi said the patient is clinically stable and responding well to treatment.
