Although it is difficult to predict when the pandemic will end in Nigeria because this depends on a lot of factors, but in the next four to six months, we will see sharp decline in number of cases, Prof. Akin Abayomi, Lagos State commissioner for health has said.
Abayomi made this submission during the ministerial press briefing to commemorate Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s one year in office.
He said this sharp signal will be a signal that we are coming towards defeating the outbreak.
Abayomi said: “We are watching what is happening across the world and using the pattern of the outbreak in different environments to try and reach some kind of modeling pattern.
Professor Akin AbayomiThis will tell us when it will peak, and then when it will finally end.”
He added that by the end of July, Lagos was likely to reach between 90, 000 to 120, 000 cases of COVID-19, noting that these figures do not signify a peak period for the state.
“Because of this projection, we are ramping up our testing capacity. We are currently doing 2000 testing every day, and this represents the highest in the country.
“Of the 90, 000 projected cases, don’t forget about 95 per cent of the persons will be asymptomatic or have mild symptoms. Only five per cent will require serious or intensive attention.
“It is this small percentage we are worried about, and it is the ones we will like to manage in our isolation centres because we hope to give them close medical monitoring.”
He said for those who are asymptomatic or with mild to moderate symptoms, the state will confine them in their homes, adding that, “We will use the Primary Health Care (PHC) platform to deliver COVID-19 response to this category of cases.
“We have been revitalising our primary healthcare structure, and we are in the process of cascading management of the disease at primary healthcare levels. We are going to do that through our 57 flagship facilities,” he added.
Abayomi further explained that the state’s primary healthcare system has carried out comprehensive assessment of no fewer than 329 PHCs, adding that this was focused on the level of functionality and geographical positioning system of the PHCs to identify gaps for service improvement efforts.
