Lagos State government has expressed concerns over its inability to reach the 35 passengers of Turkish airline that brought Italian coronavirus index case to Nigeria, but reassured Nigerians that it is doing everything possible to trace them.
It would be recalled that a total 149 passengers were on board of the Turkish airline that brought the Italian guy that test positive to coronavirus, out of which 84 were based in Lagos while 65 have gone out of Lagos to other countries or state.
The state government was able to reach 49 passengers while 35 were unreachable due to wrong data they provided at the port.
The phone number, contact address, next of kin, among others were all fake.
The State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, while giving an update on Wednesday in Lagos, frown at such reckless and irresponsible attitude, even as he assured the people of Lagos that the state government won’t relent until all of those bring tracked were identified.
”This is worrisome to us but we are trying everything possible to trace them. We are in touch with immigration in case they want to renew their visa. We also have what we called an emergency operation centre where we meet every day at Yaba.
“The inability to trace this set of people due to provision of wrong detail has continued to be a major source of worry to the state government as they are likely to pose a great risk to the general public.
“This emergency team is made up of people from different agencies that work tirelessly to ensure that we have all our basis covered, from supply to case management, to epidemiology, surveillance. This current situation falls under surveillance and we are trying everything possible to find these missing people.
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“You may not know that you have contact with coronavirus patient because most people on that flight did not know. The sooner we find you the better for you and for everybody else. So its civic responsibility to fill your information correctly.
“If you develop the symptom we can treat it early, and at the same time minimize your exposure to other people. One person now who have filed wrong information but develop the virus may be the source of an outbreak in Lagos. So it’s not a joke, it’s a serious matter,” the commissioner said.
Abayomi disclosed that the Lagos State government had deployed 60 healthcare personnel as part of the state preventive measure of the virus.
The commissioner, while giving an update of the Italian man, now under watch, said: “The index case is doing fine. We started a new treatment on him two days ago which he is responding to. He is comfortable.
“We test him every day to ascertain whether evidence of virus still exists. The moment we stop seeing traces of the virus, we will wait for extra three days just to make sure everything is alright because as long as he is still excreting the virus, he is dangerous to the community, so he will remain with us for now.”
Abayomi said all the three people that exhibited the symptoms of coronavirus recently, tested negative to the virus.
According to him, “The gentleman from Ethiopia, the Chinese man and a lady from Ewekoro all tested negative.”
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