“Italian Man Diagnosed With Coronavirus Is Recovering Fast, Now Eats Our Local Food, Amala” – Lagos State Biobank

Lagos State Biobank has said the Italian man who tested positive for coronavirus in Nigeria is fast recovering and already feeding well.

The Centre Manager of the Lagos State Biobank, Dr Bankole Akinwale, made this known at the briefing and sensitization of religious leaders on Coronavirus and other communicable diseases, organized by the State Ministry of Home Affairs, held at Christ the Light Chapel, Alausa, Ikeja.

Akinwale stated that;

A lot of things are flying in the social media but the Lagos State Government has been so active. Mr Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, prior to the latest development had established the incident command system cost over $ 4 million, in collaboration with Canadian government.

This is a coordinating centre to coordinate the preparedness and control system, otherwise work will be done haphazardly and there would not be a uni-directional flow of order.

He further noted that;

In 2014-15, while we had Ebola, one of the major reasons why we had serious issues in West Africa before Nigeria intervened was because there was no command system. Every organization that came was doing it on their own and before you knew, it had escalated.

We started the command centre here with Mr. Governor, as Chief Incident Commander and Commissioner for Health is deputy incident commander.

According to the centre manager, the state has upgraded to activating Emergency Operation Centre where there are different groups that handle issues relating to the disease.

He explained that,

One of the groups; is those that will be searching, surveillance, searching for possible cases. Another group is those at the point of entries into the country, the airports, like MMIA and borders.

Another group is those that disinfect by using chemicals to flit and clean any environment we had cases and kill the viruses that must have been deposited at the place.

Another group is the one to create awareness and sensitises. Another group will diagnose the cases to determine if it’s actually coronavirus.

Akinwale revealed that Lagos is the only state in Nigeria with biosecurity facility.

He added that;

This shows that Lagos State is a country within a country. It’s also a signal that we have pro-active, responsive government in Lagos. That’s why we have been able to handle the case when it came into the country, it didn’t take us time to diagnose if it’s actually COVID -19.

There is no state in Nigeria that has it except Lagos, that’s why Ogun State referred it to Lagos. As at today, we are expected to check two other patients being suspected for COVID-19. If we do not have such facility how do we diagnose. The normal laboratories can’t do it because it is risky to manage such a highly infectious virus.

In his words, the Doctor stressed that;

The first case is a Chinese man while the second is a Nigerian who just flew in from Dubai few days again and started developing severe body pains and other symptoms.

The patient showed up at the facility on Monday to make the complaint, but we asked the patient to come back today for possible diagnosis and further action.

While emphasizing on the importance of bio-security facility, the centre manager said;

The bio-security facility is not only for diagnoses but also as research centre where we look into ways of developing diagnostic kits. Kits are being imported into Nigeria with so much money spent. Since the case broke-out, everyday, we meet and review situation and continue on the next step.

He also revealed that the index patient of coronavirus in Nigeria is recovering, saying;

So far so good, no other confirmed case, the index case is doing well. He is doing perfectly well. We are also collecting follow up samples to see how well we are doing in terms of achievement. We are proud to say, we are doing well.

The viral dose is dropping, appetite has increased, the man is interacting very well and eating our local food ‘Amala.’ He is enjoying our meal. We are hoping for the best.

Doctor Akinwale also said the state has gone ahead to decontaminate the hotel where the Italian lodged and to keep tracing the contacts and following upon them.