The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi has disclosed that 2,026 active cases of COVID-19 in communities are yet to turn up for admission in the State care centres.
He made known that 9, 315 of the confirmed cases monitored in communities by the COVID-19 response team have either fully recovered or positively responding to treatments; adding that 158 of the cases are currently under isolation in COVID-19 Lagos public and private care centres.
Professor Abayomi disclosed this on Friday on his twitter handle @ProfAkinAbayomi. Giving update of the pandemic, he stated that 180 new infections were confirmed in Lagos on July 22, raising the total number of confirmed COVID-19 infections in the State to 13,811
According to him, the total number of COVID-19 tests conducted so far in Lagos stands at 57,923 while 2,119 of the confirmed cases have been discharged from isolation centres having fully recovered.
The Commissioner further stated that one additional COVID-19 related death was recorded, bringing the total COVID-19 related deaths in Lagos to 193.
Professor Abayomi had earlier while speaking to newsmen at the Bagauda Kaltho Press Centre, Alausa, said that a rise in number of COVID-19 cases in the State is expected by next month, August, 2020.
The expected rise he said would be as a result of the modelling carried out on the pandemic in the state. Though, he mentioned that it is just a postulation, noting that modelling is not always accurate.
“I hope Lagos State will soon flatten the curve, as we are refining the model so that we can get a better grasp when the cases will peak and when we are likely to experience the downward trend of the outbreak,” he said.
He mentioned that Eti-Osa, Alimosho, Kosofe and Oshodi-Isolo local government areas account for 60 percent of positives cases recorded in the state.
Abayomi commented that the Rapid Diagnostic Test Kits (RDT) have very high risks of giving positive or negative results.
As a result, he declared that the RDT kit is illegal in Lagos state.
“Rapid diagnostic test has been put through a rigorous validation process and all tests have failed as they do not have enough accuracy that are reliable enough for the COVID-19 response,” he said, pointing out that the experience was not peculiar to Nigeria, as the World Health Organisation (WHO) has not been able to get a RDT certified for COVID-19 testing.
While he appealed to Lagosians to desist from undergoing COVID-19 test in diagnostic centres not approved by the government, he disclosed the plan of government to increase the number of private laboratories accredited to carry out COVID-19 testing.
“Currently, we are carrying about 1000 tests per day. We hope to see an increase in both the private sector testing and the public sector testing,” he said
