As the Lagos State Government established the testing centres, the Presidency on Sunday insisted on its decision not to allow those who attended the burial of the Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari, access to the Presidential Villa for 14 days.
The Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, on Sunday tweeted, “There is nothing extraordinary about those of us who attended Abba Kyari’s funeral being advised to distance ourselves from the Villa.”
Kyari on Friday died of COVID-19 at the First Cardiologists Consultant Hospital, Lagos, where he had been undergoing treatment for the virus.
Medical experts, according to a report by Sunday PUNCH, had attacked ministers and other dignitaries, who attended Kyari’s burial for not maintaining the social distancing rule.
On Sunday in Lagos, the state Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, at a press conference said centres were established to reduce the stress of health workers, who visited several local government areas for sample collection.
According to him, the centres will enable the response team to have a better view of what is going on and be able to diagnosis the virus at the early stage.
He said, “We have decentralised the locations where you can have yourself submitted for sampling. So what we’ve done is to move sampling stations to the local government areas. And if you feel that you have any of the symptoms associated with COVID-19, you can present yourself to these decentralised sampling stations.
“They are not testing stations, they are sampling stations and if you meet the criteria for testing, you will be able to receive the counsel of the staff and your sample will be taken.
“We are not just testing anybody, there is a criterion for testing. You either must have COVID-19 symptoms to meet the case definition or be in close contact with somebody that has been confirmed with COVID-19. Your samples would be taken and it would then be sent to one of our accredited testing facilities and those facilities will then perform the tests.”
According to the list released by the state government, the testing centre for the Somolu Local Government is Wright Memorial Primary Health Centre Emmanuel Street, Somolu; that of the Ifako Ijaiye LGA is at Mini Stadium College Road; Ojo LGA, Ojo PHC 1, Rest House, Ojo; Eti-Osa LGA, Ikota Primary School, Lekki-Epe Expressway and Surulere LGA, Surulere LG Secretariat, Alhaji Masha Road, Surulere.
Also on the list are Kosofe LGA which has its centre at Ogudu Area Office, Ogudu Roundabout; Amuwo Odofin, Amuwo Odofin LG Secretariat, 41 Road, Festac Town; Ikorodu LGA, Ita Elewa PHC Oriwu Road, Ikorodu and Igbogbo PHC, Bola Ahmed Way, Igbogbo. The Lagos Island testing centre is at Igan Iduganran, Adeniji Adele Road.
They also include Epe PHC, Epe-Ijebu-Ode Expressway; Lagos Mainland, Simpson PHC; Ajeromi-Ifelodun, Akere PHC; Ibeju Lekki, Awoyaya Mayfair Estate; Apapa LGA, Apapa Iganmu LCDA Secretariat; Alimosho, Bola Ahmed Tinubu PHC, Egbeda; Ipaja Mini-Stadium, Fela Field, Ipaja and Rauf Aregbesola PHC 1, Powerline Road, Okunola, Mosan-Okunola.
The sample collection centres are also at the Ajibulu PHC in Osodi-Isolo LGA; Ikeja LG secretariat; Sango PHC in Agege, Ajara Flagship Health Centre in Badagry and Isola Road PHC in Mushin.
The health commissioner noted that the state government had ordered tailors to commence the mass production of face masks based on a standard design that had given to them.
Lagos yet to reach COVID-19 peak – Health commissioner
Abayomi, at the press conference said the state had yet to reach COVID-19 peak despite recording increasing number of cases recently.
He stated, “Seeing an increased number of patients does not mean that we are losing control. Lagos State has yet to peak. The point we are making is that the increase in number of cases per day is sustained but it is a gradual process. Had we not put these strategies in place, we would have been seeing a steep rise in the number of cases per day.”
The Commissioner for Information, Mr Gbenga Omotosho, said it was unfortunate that some markets were still not observing social distancing in the state.
He added that the state would this week begin a massive campaign on social distancing to reduce the spread of the disease.
Only one private hospital approved to treat COVID-19 in Lagos
The Chairman of the state Health Facility Monitoring and Accreditation Agency, Dr Yemisi Solanke-Koya, said only one private hospital had been approved for the treatment of COVID-19 in the state.
Solanke-Koya said other private hospitals had also applied to manage COVID-19 cases in the state but they had yet to be approved.
She said, “As of today in Lagos State, we have one facility that has been approved by the Lagos State to participate in the COVID-19 response. We do have requests from other facilities to get approval. The process is through information; HEFAMAA becomes aware of the fact that a hospital may be inadvertently exposed to COVID-19 and may be seeking to manage COVID-19 patients. We deploy our staff there so that the staff can inspect the facility according to the established protocol.”
The HEFAMAA boss, however, refused to give the figures of COVID-19 patients receiving treatment in private facilities in Lagos.
On private hospitals, the state commissioner for health said 17 private hospitals in the state had sought assistance in the management of COVID-19 cases.
He added, “The First Cardiologists Consultant Hospital is a centre that has advanced care facility and they have requested that they come under the supervision of the ministry of health as a designated facility for patients that need extreme expertise for several complications of COVID-19. They have gone through the accreditation process and they are now designated as one of our isolation facilities.”
Our eyes still on Alimosho – Abayomi
Abayomi also said the state was still monitoring Alimosho Local Government Area as regards the management of COVID-19.
Abayomi said an active case search had focused on the Alimosho area and he was expecting the analysis of the data generated from the exercise.
“We are concerned about some increasing activities in that densely populated local government area. Our data show that indeed there is a very slow but gradual increase of COVID-19 cases in the area, but it is nowhere near what we see in Mainland, Eti Osa or Ikeja, but we have put in place increased surveillance.”
Lagos Mainland has 114 cases, Eti-Osa 86, Ikeja 41
Also on Sunday, the state government stated there were 309 confirmed cases of COVID 19 in the state as of 5pm on Sunday.
It said 196 of the cases were still active, while 94 had been discharged, adding that there were 14 deaths.
The Lagos Mainland Local Government leads with 114 confirmed cases, followed by Eti-Osa with 86 cases, while Ikeja is third with 41 cases.
Alimosho has 15 cases, Kosofe, 12; Shomolu, eight; Oshodi/Isolo and Mushin have seven cases each.
Others are Surulere, six; Amuwo-Odofin, five; Ikorodu, four; Ibeju Lekki, one and Agege one; Lagos Island, Ifako-Ijaiye, Badagry and Apapa Local Government Areas with two confirmed cases each.
Three local government areas – Ajeromi/Ifelodun, Epe and Ojo – have not recorded any case.
COVID-19 spreads to seven Ogun LGAs
COVID-19 has spread to seven out of 20 local government areas of Ogun State.
The virus has spread to seven local government areas in the state.
As of Saturday, the state had recorded 12 COVID-19 cases with two new ones in the Odogbolu Local Government Area.
According to a diagram by the state Ministry of Health, the seven local government areas are Ipokia, Sagamu, Ewekoro, Yewa South, Obafemi-Owode, Odogbolu and Ikenne.
The diagram shows that Odogboolu has two; Ikenne three; Sagamu two; Obafemi-Owode one; Ewekoro two; Ipokia one and Yewa South one.
Ogun plans 1,000 tests per day
On the mobile testing being proposed by the state government, the Special Adviser to Governor on Public Communications, Remmy Hazzan, said the state was expecting the accreditation by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control .
Hassan said the state planned to test 1,000 people per day, particularly in areas near Lagos State.
Masari locks down Katsina town
In Katsina State, Governor Aminu Masari on Sunday announced total lockdown of Katsina, the state capital, with effect from Tuesday morning.
The governor made the announcement at a press conference in Katsina.
He said the lockdown became imperative after three fresh cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in the state.
According to him, two of the three cases are from the state capital, while one is from the Dutsinma Local Government Area of the state.
He revealed that with the new development, the state had 12 confirmed cases including the index case who died before he was tested positive for the virus.
Three local government areas in the state, namely Daura, Dutsinma and katsina are now in a lockdown to curb spread of the virus.
The Presidency on Sunday explained why it directed ministers and journalists that attended the burial of the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, to stay away from the Aso Rock Villa.
Those who attended the burial in Abuja on Saturday included National Coordinator COVID-19, Dr Sani Aliyu; former Governor of Borno State, Senator Kashim Shettima; and Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika. Others are the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mele Kyari; Minister of Communications, Isa Pantami and Garba Shehu.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, in a series of tweets, said, “This (the directive) is in line with the standard rules put in place by the National Center for Disease Control and the Federal Ministry of Health. You do these things to stop the spread of #Coronavirus
“For the most part, the Villa has operated digitally in the last few weeks, so there is really nothing new to this.“
An online medium, SaharaReporters, had reported that those who attended the attendees were not allowed into the State House and told to self-isolate for a minimum of 14 days.
Stay away from Villa, Presidency tells journalists at burial
In another statement on Sunday, the Presidency told the media staff and State House correspondents who covered or attended the burial to self-isolate for the next 14 days.
The Deputy Director, Information, State House, Attah Esa, in a statement titled ‘Advisory to State House Correspondents/Media Staff,’ said, “As a precautionary measure, all State House Correspondents and Media Office Staff who covered/attended the funeral prayer/burial ceremony of the late Chief of Staff, at Defence House and Gudu Cemetery Abuja, respectively, are strongly advised to work from home for the next 14 days.”
A top government source, who confided in one of our correspondents, said, “It is not unconnected with the fact that they did not maintain social distancing. Besides many of them were not well-kitted. Some did not wear face masks. Such a directive is necessary to prevent the spread of the virus to the villa.”
Recall that the late chief of staff contracted the virus during his trip to Germany. Two of his aides were diagnosed with the virus.
PUNCH
