Alarm bells are ringing across Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, as new cases of coronavirus mount despite the over three weeks of lockdown imposed by the government.
Seventy new confirmed cases of the deadly coronavirus were reported late Sunday in Lagos alone as community transmission that was feared has become real. With the state now ramping up testing, the number of new cases will inevitably rise faster in the days ahead, doctors say.
The state has ramped up its testing capacity from 400 in the last two weeks to 1,400 presently and working to increase further in the coming weeks, Akin Abayomi, commissioner for health, said on Monday.
There are now 309 confirmed cases in Lagos as at 6:00pm on Monday, 196 of which are still active and there has been 14 fatalities.
Lagos Mainland Local Government Area has the highest number of cases with 114, followed closely by Eti-Osa with 86 confirmed cases and Ikeja with 41.
They are followed by Alimosho with 15, Kosofe 12, and Shomolu eight. Mushin and Oshodi/Isolo Local Government Areas have seven confirmed cases each. Surulere has six cases, Amuwo-Odofin follows with five confirmed cases, and Ikorodu has four.
Badagry, Apapa, Lagos Island and Ifako/Ijaye have two confirmed cases each. Agege and Ibeju-Lekki have one case each.
Three local government areas – Ajeromi/Ifelodun, Epe and Ojo – have not recorded any confirmed case.
According to data released by the state government, the age distribution of the confirmed cases are 0-9 yrs = 5; 10-19 yrs = 14; 20-29 yrs = 34; 30-39 yrs = 63; 40-49 yrs = 60; 50-59 yrs = 38; 60-69 yrs = 15; 70-79 yrs = 2, and above 80 yrs = 2 cases.
Seventy percent of the cases in Lagos are classified as males while the female population accounts for 30 percent.
Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the state governor, said on Monday that the COVID-19 infection rate in the state will likely get worse before getting better, adding, however, that government is hopeful the infection curve will flatten in two to three weeks.
Government is therefore going to be more frontal in the enforcement of the stay-at-home order while face masks are now to be worn in public places to reduce community transmission of the deadly virus, Sanwo-Olu said at a media update on the spread of the disease in Lagos and the measures being taken to curtail it.
Urging the citizens to strictly observe the rules and regulations to contain the virus in the remaining days of the lockdown, the governor said, “What is in front of us is not up to what is behind us. But we have to do our best to overcome it.”
The governor said four coronavirus patients may be prosecuted in Lagos for supplying medical officials with wrong information on their travel history and other details on their activities in the state.
He said the resolve to prosecute the cases was because their act endangered their lives and the lives of medical officials and other patients at their hospitals of admission who stood the risk of contracting the disease.
Sanwo-Olu said the prosecution would serve as a deterrent to others planning to hide details on their activities before and after the lockdown was imposed on the state by President Muhammadu Buhari.
“We have taken a decision that we will be prosecuting patients that hide their details at inception and were later found to have the virus after several tests. And when they do this, they are not endangering their lives alone but the lives of our health workers. If they failed to give details, there is no way the health officials can know where they are coming from and who they have had contact with before coming to the hospital,” he said.
“We believe that when the arm of the law catches a few, everyone will know that we truly mean business. While we are doing this, it is also time for our health officials to heighten their level of suspicion on any patient that they come across. And they should raise alarm on anyone COVID-19 cases they discovered at their point of duty,” he further said.
To compensate for the workload and pressure being exerted on health workers as a result of the pandemic, Sanwo-Olu said his administration was increasing duty allowance for all categories of health workers in the state this month (April).
Warning criminal elements against taking advantage of the lockdown, the governor said over 150 suspects have been arrested by the police while security has been further beefed up with joint police-military patrols in the state.
“If the situation warrants deployment of more security personnel, we will get in touch with the Federal Government and that would be done,” he said.
JOSHUA BASSEY
