Lagos: Gov Sanwo-Olu Gives Latest Update On Coronavirus

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State has called on Lagos residents not to panic over the confirmed case of Coronavirus in the state.

Naija News reports that the Federal Ministry of Health on Friday morning confirmed the first case of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial city.

The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, confirmed the case in a statement issued in the early hours of Friday, February 28, 2020, saying that the case involves an Italian citizen who works in Nigeria and just returned from Milan, Italy on the 25th of February 2020.

This online news platform understands that the statement said the Italian was confirmed to be positive by the Virology Laboratory of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, part of the Laboratory Network of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

Naija News reports that the Ministry of Health in Lagos State confirmed its first case of COVID-19 and reported it to the Federal Ministry of Health. The ministry, however, noted that the patient is clinically stable, with no serious symptoms, and is being managed at the Infectious Disease Hospital in Yaba, Lagos.

Speaking to newsmen on Friday at the State House in Marina, Governor Sanwo-Olu sad the state government would prohibit public gatherings if the coronavirus case confirmed in the state escalated.

He, however, said taking such a measure now in the wake of the confirmation of the virus could give rise to needless panic among the public.

The governor assured that measures had been set in motion by the state and federal government to contain the spread of the virus in the country.

Sanwo-Olu said, “It is only when there is a high level of escalation that the public can be panicky and this is when we realise that it is getting to person-to-person transmission.

“As we have said, this isolated case has been contained right from the hospital where he was first admitted and the guesthouse he slept after his arrival in Nigeria.

“It is when there is a person-to-person infection that we can trigger another level of isolation and curtail public events where a large number of people can gather. But I don’t think we have gotten to that level yet.”