CORONAVIRUS: SECOND CONFIRMED CASE TO BE MANAGED IN LAGOS.{PHOTO}.#PRESS RELEASE.

     The Lagos State Government has said that the patient who recently tested positive for Coronavirus will be managed at the Biosecurity Facility of the Mainland Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba.

The Honourable Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, who disclosed this on Monday while giving updates at a news conference on #COVID19Lagos, explained that the patient who tested positive to #COVID19 is one of the 40 persons who had close contact with the index case.

According to him, the 40 persons had been in isolation at Lafarge health facility in Ewekoro, Ogun State since the confirmation of the index case, adding that the second confirmed case of #COVID19 indicated the first person-to-person transmission in Nigeria.

He noted that the Lagos State Government, through the State Ministry of Health, has resolved to take responsibility for the management of the second case because the State has the required facility and equipment for proper management of highly infectious diseases.

He said “What transpired is that the second case is one of the 40 suspected persons who came in close contact with the index case and had previously been in isolation at Lafarge Health Facility in Ewekoro. We conducted a test for 40 people because that is the group that had contact with the index case who is currently being managed in our biosecurity facility at Yaba and out of the 40 contacts, one tested positive to #COVID19”.

"We felt that it is in the interest of all that the patient be managed at the Mainland Hospital Yaba. This is why the patient is being moved from Ogun State to Lagos”. Abayomi added.

The Commissioner assured members of the public not to panic, stressing that government will continue to respond swiftly and take necessary actions to contain the spread of the disease.

“The good news is that we have identified him early enough. We are not taking chances and we did not wait for the suspected case to develop symptoms before we carried out the test. We have also isolated all those that have had contacts with the patient”, Abayomi said.

While pointing out that the search for two remaining passengers who flew on the Turkish airline with the index case continues, the Commissioner urged members of the public to assist in the search for the passengers whose names he gave as Enwelunta Godfrey Obumnore and Sadeeq Abiodun Salami (both male).