Nigeria is expected to record a milestone in its testing capacity for coronavirus as the Lagos State government last week onboarded seven private laboratories to help upscale testing, a key factor in the fight against the novel virus.
Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial city, has been the state with the highest number of confirmed cornavirus cases in the country, with the government fighting tooth and nail to contain the spread of the virus.
But for the state’s low testing capacity as a percentage of its huge population, not much has been achieved in its fight against the pandemic, with the state still recording daily infection of over 100 cases.
With a population that is over 20 million, the state has managed to achieve a test that is slightly over 35,027. That’s over eight times less when compared with the over 288,465 total tests conducted by Ghana, a country with roughly similar size as Lagos, data from WorldOmeter show.
After much ado, the state government has finally adhered to recommendations from both health and economic experts who have continued to put the government on its toes on the need to include private sector players to assist in ramping up testing.
For the experts, increasing testing would help the government to quickly identify and isolate those infected with the virus to avoid spread to other members of the community.
On June 26, about four months after the index case of the virus was reported, the state government announced the inclusion of seven private laboratories to add to its four public laboratories which it has used from the outset to test for the virus.
In a document seen by BusinessDay which originated from the office of the state’s health commissioner, the government named the seven private laboratories as Total Medical Services, Synlab, 54 Gene, Medbury Medical Services, 02 Medical Services, and Clina Lancent Laboratories.
These seven private labs which are expected to commence testing immediately would complement the state-run Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH, CHAZVY), Lagos State Biobank (LBS), Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIRM), and the Central Public Health Laboratories (CPHL), all testing centres used by the state.
According to the Lagos State government, the decision to include the private sector to ramp up testing follows the continuous attempts to open up various aspects of its economy, which makes it imperative that COVID-19 tests are widely available to members of the public. However, it noted that its COVID-19 response would remain a centrally managed emergency response by the state government.
“Including the private sector will definitely be a game changer for Nigeria as the capacity to test will increase significantly as well as also setting the benchmark for the commercialisation of the testing process,” said Debo Odulana, a health management consultant and founder/CEO, Doctoora E-Health Ltd.
Odulana said the state having the private sector come on board, serves as a good case study even for the rest of the country.
“If people are able to pay for testing, especially corporates, it will increase the revenue capacity coming from the process which will in turn guarantee sustainability of the system,” he said.
Despite commendations on the inclusion of private players to assist in the ramping up of testing, health and economic experts still have cause for concern, especially after documents from the state’s health commissioner, Akin Abayomi, showed some frightening statistics in the state’s fight against the virus.
The first was that one in every four persons living in Lagos may have already been infected with the virus.
At 27 percent, the state’s infection rate is higher than the 14 percent in Texas, where the government had placed the state on national alert.
Second was the fact that there has been a massive uptick in infection rate following the ease of lockdown.
Lagos’ infection rate rose by over 745 percent to 9,497 from 1,123 following easing of the lockdown in the state.
This perhaps goes to show why the government is threatening to impose another phase of lockdown.
Third was that over 2,381 persons who have been infected with the virus have not been picked up either because they declined to be picked up or they could not be found due to wrong information.
Another concern for economic and health experts who spoke to BusinessDay was the highly skewed pattern in the local government areas where the increasing infections are being reported.
Of the 21 local governments where the virus has been reported in the state, Eti-Osa continues to have the highest number of reported cases, accounting for 16 percent of total confirmed cases.
Eti-Osa, with an estimated population of 295, 267 based on BusinessDay calculation, and which was never in the league of those to have recorded a community spread of the virus in Lagos, is now way ahead of others. This has aroused questions from analysts who have tasked the government to look critically into the cause of the sporadic infections rate.
The 1,515 confirmed cases in Eti-Osa dwarf the 663 and 659 cases reported in Alimosho and Kosofe, the state’s second and third highest LGA with the virus, respectively.
According to Odulana, the increasing number of infections in Eti-Osa is because there are a lot more people testing in the area probably due to a higher level of enlightenment.
In spite of the ordeal, the state has commendable numbers in its fight against the virus.
In terms of the number of fatality rate, only about 2 persons out of every 100 infected with the virus has died from it, a situation which analysts gave thumbs up to. Also, the average length of stay in an isolation centre for patients with the virus was put at about 13 days.
Even though the Lagos accounts for 42 percent of the total confirmed cases in Nigeria, the state Lagos accounts for only 23.6 percent of the recorded deaths due to COVID-19 in the country, suggesting competence by the government in the management of confirmed cases in the state.
The state government is also bringing on board selected private sector facilities to manage the patients under its COVID-19 response, and so far, three private healthcare facilities have been accredited by the Lagos State Health Facility Monitoring and Accreditation Agency (HEFAMAA) to manage COVID-19 patients. These private healthcare facilities are First Cardiology Consultants, Paelon Memorial Clinic and Vedic Hospital.
Transitioning to community-based care
According to the document, the state over the next couple of days will be transitioning to the next phase of the response which it referred to as the community-based care.
Under the community-based care arrangements, the state is providing an opportunity for mild-to-moderate cases being managed and isolated at home in situations where it is allowed.
However, the more critical-to-severe cases will be continually managed at the state’s COVID centres, where they would have the opportunity of the best treatment available.
