By Harry Awurumibe, ABUJA BUREAU EDITOR
Apparently impressed with the low number of Coronavirus (Covid-19) fatalities in the country so far, Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi has said that Nigeria is managing the outbreak better than some countries across the world.
Abayomi who was a guest of ‘Sunrise Saturday’ on Channels Television this morning also revealed that Lagos State will change strategy as cases of Covid-19 continue to rise in the state.
The Professor of Internal Medicine who is the Chairman of Lagos State Task Force on Covid-19 Pandemic argued that, “Nigeria is doing better than other countries in the world in the containment of the novel Coronavirus pandemic in the face of the weak health infrastructures in the country”.
He stated that Covid-19 as a new virus has not been properly understood by scientists and medical workers all over the world hence it is causing havoc across the world.
The Commissioner said that Covid-19 is a highly contagious pathogen different from flu, pointing out that, “if you have Flu you will feel on well but if you have Covid-19 you may still be feeling well and be spreading the virus”.
Speaking specifically on Lagos State, Abayomi disclosed that the state was prepared even before the first Index Case was recorded, adding that, “we knew that Lagos will be an epicentre because we knew the diaspora will come back through our ports hence Lagos State launched what we call Inside Command Center ahead of the outbreak in the state”.
On whether Lagos and Indeed, the country are testing as many as it should, he said that, “We have to have the plan to test and do something with the test results because of our capacity to handle the cases”.
For lack of capacity, he said that, “We are going to move from isolating many of those who are not seen to be unwell to isolating those who are very unwell”.
On the statistics of the ages of victims of Covid-19 so far in Nigeria he said, “Young Nigerians have the resilience for Covid-19 because study so far has shown that mainly elderly people make up the fatality.
A lot of research still has to be done to understand Covid-19.
