-As Lagos Accredits 7 Private Laboratories
No fewer than 2,381 COVID-19 patients have defied admission into any of the Lagos State isolation centres due to their refusal to be picked up and provision of wrong information, which has made it difficult for the state team to locate them, the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi has said.
Abayomi made the disclosure during a televised COVID-19 situation update Friday, as he noted that the state has approved the use of seven private laboratories to ramp up COVID-19 testing.
Presenting the summary of COVID-19 report since the outbreak of the infection in the country, Abayomi said the state has recorded 9,496 confirmed cases, of which 2,381 are yet to be admitted, 128 patients have died, while 5064 patients were believed to have recovered in the community.
He added that I,470 cases were admitted and discharged from state’s COVID care centres, while 447 are currently on admission at state’s COVID centres and 7 patients evacuated from COVID care centres.
With the spate of infection transmission in the state, Abayomi revealed that Lagos will commence a new phase of treatment of the infection, as mild-to- moderate cases will be treated at home, while critical-to-severe cases will be well monitored at isolation centres.
“Over the next couple of days, we will be transitioning to the next phase of the response which we refer to the community based care. We provide the opportunity for mild-to-moderate cases to be managed and isolated at home, in situation where this is allowed. Our critical to severe cases will be continually managed at our COVID centres, where they will have the opportunity of the best treatment available”, he stated.
He listed the newly accredited private laboratories as follows: Total Medical services; Synlab; 54 Gene; Medbury Medical Services; Biologix Medical Services; 02 Medical Services; and Clina Lancet Laboratories.
The health commissioner also mentioned the inclusion of three selected private facilities for the expansion of isolation centres in the wake of limited bed spaces in government isolation centres in the state. The three approved private facilities to be included in community base care in the state are: First Cardiology Consultants; Paelon Memorial Clinic and Vedic Hospital.
Meanwhile the Nigeria Medical Association, NMA has warned against the adoption of home treatment of COVID-19 patients, as it is capable of leading to spike in cases.
NMA President, Prof. Innocent Ujah in an interview with Pharmanewsonline frown against the strategy, while doubting its practicability in the country, where majority of the population are living in limited space accommodation.
“We talked about self- isolation, I think that is one area that we didn’t get right.
“How can a man living in a one-room apartment with many children self-isolate when he comes in contact with a COVID-19 case? It is going to be difficult to self-isolate under such condition.
“Again, our culture and tradition must be evaluated to see how we can appropriately respond”, he stressed.
On the COVID-19 update in the state, Abayomi said Lagos being the epic centre of the infection has recorded 42% of the total cases in the Nigeria, but accounts for only 23.6% of deaths recorded due to the infection, while the remaining 58% confirmed cases are distributed among other states.
