Ayodele Olalere
Following the discovery of coronavirus in Lagos, Nigeria, the nation’s commercial nerve centre has been battling to curtail the spread of the deadly scourge, which now ravages over 60 countries and has claimed thousands of lives worldwide.
It is recalled on February 27, 2020, an Italian man, who works for a company in Ogun State, was tested positive to the disease in Lagos. The Italian, whose identity has been kept under wraps, arrived the country from Milan, Italy, en-route Istanbul, Turkey, four days earlier, and stayed in an hotel in Lagos for two days before he headed to Ogun State.
However, after complaining of fever at the company, he was treated at the company’s hospital and later transferred to Lagos for further tests, with result confirming he had be infected with the virus.
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The news of the incident sent shivers down the spine of Lagosians and Nigerians as a whole, as many began living in fear of the disease. Hence, the battle to curtail the spread of the disease began by the Lagos State government.
The anxiety by the state government is understandable. As the commercial nerve centre of the country, with a population of almost 30 million, the state has large numbers of foreigners, who use the busiest airport in the country, Murtala Muhammed International Airport. On daily basis, thousands of travelers from different parts of the world land at the airport. While some stay in Lagos after arrival, others connect other states, using local airlines from the airport.
The state is also the only state in the South-west that has a well equipped bio-laboratory with capacity to test for such virus. It has testing centres and sophisticated bio-security facilities, which were established during the last outbreak of Ebola virus in the country.
Therefore, in anticipation and preparation for possible detection of the virus in Nigeria, Lagos State government had established an Incident Command Centre, at Mainland Hospital, Yaba.
As soon as the Italian was confirmed to have the virus at 10pm on February 27, the state government began the battle to curtail its spread. First, the state government called for an emergency press conference the following day by the state governor and Chief Incident Commander, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, where he addressed journalists on the incident.
According to the governor, the conference was to prevent any misinformation or fake news that could be circulated on social media on the incident and to sensitise Lagosians on how to avoid contracting it.
According to the governor, he urged Nigerians not to panic over the reported COVID-19 incident, assuring of the state government’s commitment to containing the spread of the virus in the state. He said the two bio-security facilities in the state had the capability to contain the virus.
“At 10pm on Thursday, I got a call from the Commissioner of Health, who reported possible identification of patient with coronavirus in Ogun State. Immediately, we triggered all levels of bio-security responses and containment facilities. After series of laboratory examination, the patient was confirmed to have tested positive to the virus in early hours of today (Friday) and we immediately alerted the federal authorities, including the president and everybody who needs to be aware. We are in constant touch with the company where the patient was engaged. The management and personnel of the company have been cooperative,” Sanwo-Olu said.
“Health workers and emergency officials are on the field to track all persons that had physical contacts and interaction with the patient. Our bio-security facilities have been fortified to continue any form of test and contain any other potential case. We are in constant touch with the Federal Ministry of Health to harmonise our response to the incident. For us in Lagos, we are doing anything that needs to be done. The patient is stable and every health intervention required is currently being given to him,” he added.
The state government also ensured the Italian was kept at the Incident Command Centre while also cordoning the premises of the hospital.
The state Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, commended medical workers at the Ogun State medical facility for keeping the Italian at the hospital before his transmission to Lagos. “It was very astute of the medical practitioners in that facility to keep him overnight in an isolated environment,” Abayomi said.
Abayomi added: “We have designated five General Hospitals, two Internally Displaced Persons, IDP, camps. The Incident Centre is of international standard. It’s a well put together infrastructure against what is circulating on social media.
When The Nigerian Xpress visited the containment centre at Yaba, the Medical Director, Mainland Hospital, Dr. Bowale Abimbola, said the state government established two isolation centres where suspected cases are first tested and if found positive are later confined.
According to him, suspected cases are tested at Isolation centre 1 while confirmed cases are moved to Isolation centre 2 for treatment. He also told The Nigerian Xpress that additional tents had been erected with 30-bed capacity equipped with air-conditioners, while another two well-equipped 30-bed mobile hospitals had been provided in case there is overflow of suspected cases. He added that the two isolation centres could take 32 patients, with 16 beds each.
As at the time The Nigerian Xpress visited the centre, there were renovation works going on with medical personnel, working round the clock to ensure adequate provisions are made in preparation for more suspected cases.
“The plan is that once we conclude the renovation, we are doing now and patients come in and he or she is a suspected case, we move them to Isolation Centre 1 and collect samples. If it is positive, we move the person to Isolation 2, which is at the back of Isolation 1. But for now, because Isolation 2 is undergoing maintenance, Isolation 1 is where we have our confirmed cases. At first, the two centres were 14 beds, each making 28 beds, but now we have made it 16 each to make it 32,” Dr. Bowale told The Nigerian Xpress.
He added: “The other beds are in the two tents, which is behind Isolation 2. They are 15 beds each and will be equipped with air-conditioners. We also have two mobile hospitals, which can take 30 beds. By and large, we can say we are ready to take in patients. As you can see, I am not using any face mask because this distance between me and the patient is more than two metres, so I can’t get infected. It’s only when I move closer to the patient that I am going to put up my full kits. We know what we are doing and there is no need for anyone to panic.”
Bowale further said the laboratory, where the tests are carried out ‘is second to none in Africa with four level of power generation.’
“The level of analysis going on in the lab can be compared to anyone in the world. There are bio-security experts. The laboratory will continue to do research and tests on the virus,” he said.
With medical facilities put in place, the state government began move to identify people the Italian had contacts with, beginning from the airline to the airport, through his stay in Lagos and final movement to Ogun State.
According to Prof. Abayomi, the state government has been able to trace 100 people, who had contacts with the Italian. He said Nigerian authorities had been in touch with the 100, who may have had contact with the man.
“It is around 100 people but that number is increasing every minute. The number is going up all the time, as we find people who were on the flight. We found people who were on the journey to Ogun with him, and those in contact with him at the factory and people at the hotel. We have identified most of these people and we are monitoring their situations. We don’t want to give the virus opportunity to spread. There were 159 passengers on the flight,” he said.
Abayomi added: “There are 25 people, who came in contact with him at the factory; there were two drivers and an ambulance driver. We have quarantined those identified so far at our medical facilities and some of them at home. We are calling them twice a day to check if they are okay. If they develop symptoms, we will bring them to our bio-security facility for test. We have identified all of these people except some of the people on the aircraft, who have either gone back to Europe and other states. Some of them gave us false information on the phone. We are still trying to find the remaining passengers on that aircraft every day. Our contact list is over 100 persons and this number is increasing every day. We have also alerted our medical facilities to be conscious of anyone with cold and high fever.”
Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, also said the government is doing all possible to track everyone on the flight and everyone the Italian had made contact with.
He said: “What we are doing now is that he came in through one airline, so we are trying to track everybody on that flight. He went from Lagos to Ewekoro. Who had he met? What has happened? Those are the people that we are tracking, isolate them and then check.”
On Thursday, March 6, the Lagos State Ministry of Health again recorded three new suspected cases of the virus in the state.
Akin Abayomi, the Commissioner for Health, noted that the suspected patients were under isolation at the containment facility in Yaba.
The commissioner said the state government is not taking any chances in its battle to prevent the spread of the virus.
“Their samples have been taken and results are being expected. The suspected patients came to Nigeria from France, England and China. One of them is a Nigerian, who visited France for seven days and returned to Lagos days ago. The patient had headache and respiratory symptoms. So, because he had been to a country where there is an active person to person transmission, it could be a common cold, but there is a possibly that it could be coronavirus.
“We are not taking chances, there is active transmission going on in France and we have isolated him,” the commissioner said.
Meanwhile, the three new suspected cases have tested negative to the coronavirus and discharged.
Apart from providing medical facilities, the state government has now embarked on grassroots sensitisation of the virus and its prevention.
One of such was a meeting the state governor had with chairmen of Local Governments, LGAs, and Local Council Development Areas, LCDAs. According to the governor, the meeting was to inform the chairmen on the need to educate those in their localities o the virus and measures to contain it.
“We have called for this meeting as part of proactive measures we are taking to prevent the spread of coronavirus to our local communities. It is no more news that we are managing a case in Lagos but the situation does not call for panic. One of the lessons we learnt during the outbreak of Ebola virus six years ago is that, the grassroots was adequately sensitised and prepared,” Sanwo-Olu said.
“We are bringing the lesson back in this period when we are dealing with another highly contagious virus. We don’t want to record any loss of life to this virus. My administration places premium value on human life, which is the reason we have upgraded facilities at our bio-security centre and Infectious Disease Hospital to stop the spread of the virus.
“We believe we will achieve better results in this effort if people at the grassroots are properly sensitised on how to protect their communities from the virus and other contagious diseases,” he added.
He urged the chairmen to support government’s efforts at containing the virus as “government cannot do it alone. It requires collective responsibility of everybody living in Lagos to stop the virus. Therefore, what we are doing today is to cascade information on coronavirus down to people in our various communities and towns,” the governor said.
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Not left out in the sensitisation programme are the trade unions, market women, transport unions, and others.
The state government has also urged residents to be wary of their personal hygiene and ensure a clean environment. Some of the measures are regularly and thoroughly washing of hands with soap and water, use of alcohol-based hand sanitiser, maintaining, at least one and half metres (five feet) distance between you and anyone, who is coughing or sneezing.
“Persons with persistent cough or sneezing should stay home or keep a social distance, but not mix in crowd, make sure you and people around you follow good respiratory hygiene, cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or into your sleeve at the bent elbow or tissue when you cough or sneeze.”
