Lagos Government Laments That Many People Run Away After Testing Positive For Coronavirus

Published: May 9, 2020

Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof Akin Abayomi has lamented that many people run away from their homes after testing positive for coronavirus to avoid being taken to the state’s isolation facilities for treatment.

Abayomi disclosed this on Friday, May 8, 2020, while responding to the question on the difference between the occupancy of the isolation centres and the number of active cases in the state.

According to him, the absconding patients was one of the reasons the state still had unoccupied beds at the isolation centres despite recording more cases than its available bed-capacity.

“There is also a situation that we experience, when we test people, sometimes they find it difficult to find them. The ambulances will go into community, people will flee their homes, and they make it difficult for us to find them.”

The commissioner also revealed that some patients sometimes shut their doors or they leave their environment to avoid being admitted.

The commissioner said this is because people are afraid to come to the isolation centres and the ministry has no time to start hunting people round the community.

“If you have tested positive, we expect you to cooperate with us and make yourself available so that you can be admitted and accessed.
“Our isolation facilities are really comfortable, it is not like the Ebola days, we have made a lot of improvements.
“Members of the executive and senior people in government have been admitted into those facilities. If I test positive, I will go to one of those facilities,” Mr Abayomi said.

The health commissioner said Lagos residents have nothing to be afraid of as the staff are very professional.

He said the state still has about 307 unoccupied beds out of the 569 total bed spaces available in the state because most patients are yet to be admitted, while most are on the run after testing positive for coronavirus.

According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Lagos State currently has 1,667 cases of the coronavirus disease which has affected 3,912 persons in Nigeria.