At an inter-ministerial press briefing, officials of the Lagos State Government explained that despite the coronavirus pandemic, governance continues in the state, reports Associate Editor ADEKUNLE YUSUF
Whatever it takes and no matter how long it lasts, the fight against coronavirus is going to end on a victory note. That was the assurance from an inter-ministerial media briefing on COVID-19 at JJT Park, Alausa, where members of the Lagos State cabinet updated the public about what the state is doing to contain the pandemic.
Commissioner for Information and Strategy Gbenga Omotoso said the inter-ministerial briefing was designed to update residents on the efforts of the various ministries of government in the fight against the spread of the disease.
“It is meant to assure Lagosians that despite the threat posed by the pandemic, the people saddled with the task of running the affairs of the state have not stopped working.
Besides reassuring Lagosians that the state is on top of this situation, it is also an opportunity to let the public know of the state government’s programmes, now and after we must have seen the back of the pandemic,” he said.
Since the country recorded its index case in February when an Italian man tested positive for coronavirus, Lagos has remained Nigeria’s epic-centre in the fight against the global pandemic.
Of the country’s 328 cases (as at Monday morning), Lagos has 176 cases. But Commissioner for Health Prof Akin Abayomi assured residents that there is no need to panic, stressing that everything suggests that the strategies employed in the fight against the spread of the disease in the state are working.
He emphasised that though he is the one regularly briefing the press on the state’s coronavirus containment activities, many officials are equally busy working at the background to ensure that the virus does not snowball into an unmanageable crisis.
Having been preparing for infectious disease outbreaks since the Ebola outbreak about five years, Lagos has leveraged on its experience to upgrade its medical facilities and train its medical personnel, he said.
“Since five years ago, we knew an incident such as this would happen. The only thing is that we didn’t know when. The Ebola incident, then, taught us some lessons, since it revealed our areas of strength and those areas that needed to be strengthened.
That was why we had already instituted the Incident Command Structure, concerning the pandemic, even before the first case was recorded in Lagos,” he said.
On the management of COVID-19 corpses, Abayomi said that officials from the Ministries of Health and Environment had been trained to specially prepare such bodies before handing them over to their families for burial.
This is to ensure that “the family members were not at risk of being infected by their loved ones. Even when people die of Coronavirus, it doesn’t mean that the virus has died. The corpse is still infectious,” the commissioner said.
While clarifying on the use of face masks, Abayomi explained that “only sealed N95 masks, which covers the entire face and filters air-breathing, could protect (the wearer) from contracting coronavirus. If you wear ordinary masks or anything else, they’re not protecting you from COVID-19.”
In terms of how many bed spaces are available in the state in case infection cases soar, Abayomi said available facilities can take care of emerging scenarios, stressing that the state is working hard to upgrade and expand existing facilities and build new ones.
He disclosed that there are three isolation centres in Lagos: located in Yaba, Onikan and Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). Of these, LUTH alone has a 280-bed capacity, 100 of which are already occupied by COVID-19 patients.
In the next few days, two new isolation centres (with about 150 beds) would be ready at Gbagada General Hospital and another one in Victoria Island, he said.
With these measures in place, Abayomi assured residents that the state government under Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu is committed to ensuring that the deadly virus is contained as quickly as possible so that normal activities can be restored.
