The Lagos State Ministry of Health has announced that its officials have been able to break the cycle of person to person transmission of the Coronavirus in Nigeria.
Disclosing this information during a news briefing to give updates on how the COVID 19 is being managed in Nigeria, the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi disclosed that all identified contacts of the index case have now tested negative to the virus and have been discharged having exceeded the standard 14 days in quarantine without symptoms.
According to the Health Commissioner;
“The remaining contacts of the index case; those in Ogun and Lagos States remain symptom-free and they have exceeded their 14 days surveillance, which means that we do not expect that any of them will turn positive from direct contact with the index case”.
“In simple words, that means in Lagos, we have been able to interrupt the transmission between the index case and anybody in this environment, we have broken the circle of transmission and have not given the virus the opportunity to spread beyond one person.
So, the threats posed by the index case to Lagos and Nigeria has been eliminated and we have not gotten an outbreak as a result of the interventions that took place in Lagos.”
Prof. Abayomi explained further that the contact of the index case who initially tested positive to the Coronavirus, has now tested negative after two additional tests were carried out.
He added that the patient has been certified as Coronavirus free and subsequently discharged from quarantine.
“His tests initially showed that he was positive to Coronavirus twice and now, he has tested negative to the virus on two consecutive tests carried out on him”, he said.
The Health Commissioner also informed the public that the index case is now hale and hearty although he remains on admission because he is still secreting the Virus.
He however stated that his immune system is responding adequately to the threat and he will be discharged soon.
“He is perfectly well now, we are only keeping him because he still has some secretion of the virus. The test shows that anytime from now, he may be negative.
If he is negative, we will conduct another test within 48 hours after and if he is still negative, we will set him free. We are close to discharging the index case, we want to be sure he poses no danger to society anymore”, Abayomi disclosed.
He thereafter urged members of the public not to panic but be rest assured that the Nigerian government will continue to take necessary action to contain the spread of the Coronavirus in Nigeria.
He said Lagos State will also beef up its surveillance of the disease by sending more medical personnel to the points of entry into the State.